Great article in the newsletter that I missed until now. More of that please.
Some comments about those claims and Sense’s analysis:
Dishwasher (or any appliance for that matter) embodied energy is not insignificant. Especially in these days of many questionable appliances and their reliability, recommendations to over-work your appliance seem suspect!
Having grown up downunder and being exposed to drought and some dear (old) neighbors who had lived for decades in Kenya and were so stingy with water that they often used sand to clean dishes, the water+energy equation is something close to my heart. So there is the question of: “How much energy does it take to produce your water?”. Ask Saudi Arabia, Israel or Australia for that matter.
Cascade’s campaign has the same ring to it as something, again from childhood … the infamous “Get Some Pork on Your Fork”. Increased lean pork production lead to stressed out pigs that had such high levels of stress hormones that there was evidence it was making people sick. So does Cascade make a 1 dish, 2 dish, red dish, blue dish specialty pack? Smaller? Cheaper? Hmmmm. Does your pork taste like soap?
Having a smaller-than-the-sink bucket in the sink is standard practice in droughty areas. Wash with hot and minimize hot water usage. Rinse with cold.
Begs the question: Is there a dishwasher cycle “hack” when combined with hand washing that leads to the best of both worlds?
Then there’s that washing of hands we are all doing. I do find myself combining the exercises for efficiency. 1 big plate = “Happy Birthday”?
Solar people need to use their dishwashers as surrogate batteries and do load-shifted loads when energy is cheap!
Oh, and I highly recommend Pat O’Neill’s “Water & Power”, and of course Polanski’s “Chinatown”.
[On a meta-note for Sense people: a search for “dishwasher” in the Community doesn’t reveal that blog article]
On a related note, are dishwashers fairly “easy” for Sense to find, or not, because of all the electronics and modes they have now? I think my dishwasher’s heating element has been found, but Sense thinks it is the Toaster Oven, not a separate appliance.
I have a Bosch SHVM63W53. I’m curious to see when the motor(s) (there is at least a motor in there, right?) gets detected, and not just the heating element.
Sense hasn’t yet found the motor on my Bosch SHX68T55UC. I suspect that’s because it uses a DC motor under digital control (no relays). I don’t have a big enough access hole to the dedicated outlet to install an HS110 on a short extender cord, but expanding that hole is in my plans.
You made me remember that my dishwasher isn’t hardwired to electrical, but is indeed plugged in. Maybe I’ll use the HS110 I use for the air purifier to see how much, or little, power it uses. @kevin1 What was discovered on your dishwasher?