By Trent Hamm
This seems like common sense at first glance. If you run your dishwasher, your washing machine, or your dryer with only half a load of clothes or dishes, you’re losing out in terms of efficiency.
Even if you run the machine with small load settings, the machine is still using most of the water and most of the energy of a full load.
Let’s look at some actual numbers. A typical household can save 3,400 gallons of water a year by running full laundry loads instead of half loads, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Given a national average of $1.50 per 1,000 gallons of water, that’s an annual savings of $5.15 from just the water in the washing machine over the course of a year.
What about energy costs? Numbers vary, but the sources I’ve... More...
