High EfficiencyWashing Machine – low energy, low water

[blacksmith]

My first post so please bear with me.

I am in the process of self building a barn conversion – off all mains services except for electricity (soon to be connected once I have finished digging the trench) no septic tank ( I will be using a ‘trench arch’ system to treat all ‘greywater’ so it may be a little premature but I am looking into the eventual need to replace my old washing machine etc. and would like some thoughts/opinions on what might be the way to go or what to look for in future when trying making some informed decisions.

What I would like to aim for is simple, low energy and low water usage. It may well be that modern systems are already low energy and low water but I do not know and welcome your thoughts.

If it helps I will be using a ground source heat pump and solar panels for heating so anything that would suit a low temperature system or will only draw water at a low temperature is to be aimed at.

Thanks for your time.

[don]

Re: High EfficiencyWashing Machine – low energy, low water

blacksmith wrote:

What I would like to aim for is simple, low energy and low water usage. It may well be that modern systems are already low energy and low water but I do not know and welcome your thoughts.

Thanks for your time.

Hi

Modern systems are indeed water and energy efficient. This has come about more in recent years, with manufacturers introducing newer technology, water consumption has been greatly reduced with the majority of machines now only cold fill. Then there is the issue of reducing electricity needs and our carbon footprint as well.

All machines now have to be energy efficient and all appliances in shops have to display an energy label, which among other things will show how much water and electricity is uses per cycle.

For example I have a Bosch WAE24465GB 7kg load in the shop which uses only 49 litres of water and only 1.19 kwh of electricity (probably about 10p) per cycle.

The German suppliers like AEG, Bosch and Miele all have easy to use control panels which are uncluttered unlike some of the others around.

HTH

Don

[kwatt]

Re: High EfficiencyWashing Machine – low energy, low water

Hi Blacksmith,

Most all modern washing machines are cold fill only. I recently wrote this article to explain why that hot or mixed fill was pretty much a waste of space.

Most of the decent machines now use pretty low amounts of energy but the thing is that, in short, it’s a trade off a lot of the time between using less energy by reducing the water consumption but, in order to achieve that, you have to wash for longer.

K.

[hotpnt]

Re: High EfficiencyWashing Machine – low energy, low water

crikey don where can you get 1.2KWH for 10p????

[don]

Re: High EfficiencyWashing Machine – low energy, low water

hotpnt wrote:crikey don where can you get 1.2KWH for 10p????

I was working it out on our current supplier Scottish Power which we pay a one off annual payment of £14 for capped electricity. This is the third year we have done this and it seems to work for us or so I am led to believe by my wife 😉

Don

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