Which is more Efficient & Cheaper, Hand Washing or Dishwasher?


If you live in Portland and Portland General Electric provides your electricity, like me you receive a little handout in the mail with your bill. I rarely look at these but when I do I have found that PGE does a good job of providing it’s Portland consumers with tips to being more efficient. For a long time after buying my own home, we lived without a dishwasher. And for a long time I convinced myself that this was a fine way to live because I was being more energy efficient. So is this true? Well, there’s no straight yes or no answer. A lot of it has to do with how you wash your dishes, either by leaving the faucet running or using a two sink method. And whether you have an old, inefficient (regardless of age) or new efficient dishwasher. Here’s the breakdown of efficiency:

Hand Washing (running water method)–> $85 a year
Hand Washing (rinse only)————–> $23 a year
Hand Washing (two sink method)——-> $13 a year

Machine Washing (old dishwasher)——> $30 a year
Machine Washing (new but inefficient)–> $29 a year
Machine Washing (new & efficient)—–> $14 a year

by Betsy Ballantyne
betsy@betsyballantyne.com

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