than washing the dishes yourself? I was wondering about this the other day. As well as the convenience, I would hope that a diswasher would consume less energy in terms of quantity of water, quantity of hot water, washing soap, etc. (Not sure what 'etc' covers in this case, if anything, but it looks good :) I know this is a really general question and the answer is 'it depends', but if like me you like to get the dishes really clean, and rinse off the suds, is it better energy consumption wise to let the kitchen robot do it?

I doubt it - hand washing is always going to save more water and detergent - surely.

I felt certain that a dishwasher would use far more water than a human-washer but initial research results suggest I'm way off. As always, it depends on how you use it. Run it full once a day and you could be saving energy by using one.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/08/dishwasher_vs_h.php
http://www.practicalenvironmentalist.com/eco-gadgets/dishwashers-energy-star-water-efficiency-and-the-environment-a-consumer-guide.htm

I can't get passed my gut feeling that hand washing has to use less energy, or more to the point, makes less co2.
Most dishwashers prefer a cold water feed and use electricity to heat the water. It takes a lot of power to heat water and gas is a more carbon efficient way to heat water than electricity (unless your electricity is exclusively renewable). So if you are thrifty with your water and only wash up when you have "a full load" then hand washing has to be a winner. Oh and I haven't factored in the Carbon Footprint of the manufacture of the dishwasher in the first place!

I agree with SharpSharp, I feel the most efficient way is probably to do the dishes 'all at once' by hand, using a soapy hot water sink and cold water rinsing sink. But, in my house we don't let the dishes pile up enough to justify this. Maybe we should? Could be worth investigating...

I also agree, the manufactoring and lest not forget the disposal of the dishwasher have to cost more energy overall in the longrun...

I estimate it costs me about $.19 to run my dishwasher. And since we cannot normally get an entire days dishes done in one sink-load I think its makes far more sense to run the dishwasher once than to have to run a sink full of hot water three times a day just to get the dishes done.

Also, when we purchased our new dishwasher, our old one was recycled to minimize what went into the landfill.

For example, Webtogs let people offset their deliveries with a 25p contribution on their order which they then match.

http://www.webtogs.co.uk/help/Carbon_Neutral_Delivery.html