washing machines, was: The 8008

Can't give you a qualitative number, but whenever anyone in my laundry room (apartment complex with bunch of washers, dryers, and a high speed extracter) uses the centrifuge after the regular washing machine spin cycle, there's a hefty amount of water coming out the drain pipe.

I'll swing by it later and figure out the G forges...

There are two uses of energy. The first is the amount of electricity used by the machine itself. The second is the amount of water it uses, especially hot water.

While the latter is a kind-of-invisible cost, it's very real, and is actually often more.

Take, for example, 20 gallons of water (a typical value Way Back When) that's been heated from 55F to 110F.

That's... 55 degrees times 20 gallons = 55 degrees times (20gal * 8lb-gal) 160 pounds = 8,800 BTUs = (direct conversion) 2.5 kw-hr

In the USofA with a typical electric rate of $0.15 (that's 15 cents)-kw-hr, you're using $0.40 (40 cents) if you're heating that water with electricity. Other fuels, even though less efficient, usually cost less.

The nameplate on the washer I just glanced at said it used 8 amps at 120V = 1kw. That, of course, is a maximum draw. FIgure on 1-2 of it in steady mode equivalent, and 1-2 hour. So electrical use for actual functioning is ( 1 kw * 1-2 * 1-2) = 0.25 (1-4) kw-hr for each wash cycle.

Hence the reason why today's washers use less and less water than the older ones, and why almost none have hot, or even warm, final rinse options. -- Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded