Save Energy Wash at 30 Degrees
There are lots of ways to save energy around the home. My favourite energy saving tip is to replace your incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs. The next best energy tip I found is to wash your clothes at a maximum of 30 degrees. I’ve always washed my clothes at hotter temperatures but for no particular reason. Your clothes will come out just as clean when washed at 30 degrees.
New Consumer writes about the UK’s biggest supermarket (owned by Walmart in the US) Asda. Asda will be changing the labels on the clothes they produce and sell to read that the recommended washing temperature be 30 degrees rather than the current 40:
As Asda points out, if all the 237 million garments George sells every year were washed at 30 degrees celsius, £200,000 would be saved in electricity and - according to the Energy Saving Trust - ‘enough CO2 to fill 4,600 double decker buses’ in carbon.
The ‘wash cooler’ advice reminds me of Ariel’s Wash-at-30 degrees campaign last September. Like Asda, it flagged up the eneryg-saving merits of turning the dial on your machine, suggesting 1.6 billion kilowatt-hours of energy are being wasted annually by washing at the traditional 40 degrees.
The potential savings by doing this are incredible, especially if thousands or preferably millions of people made this simple change. I will most definitely be washing my clothes at lower temperatures from now on. As mentioned above, Ariel (one of the top washing detergent brands in the UK) had a campaign to educate people about washing in cooler water. Some of their energy saving tips include:
- Wash your clothes at 30°C. This could save you up to 40% on energy usage.
- Buy energy efficient appliances. When old appliances need replacing choose appliances with A or A+ energy ratings.
- Switch to energy efficient light bulbs.
- Turn off TVs, DVD players etc completely rather than leaving them on standby which uses considerable energy. This is not very practical but something I do when going on holiday.
- Switch the oven off 10 minutes before your food is cooked. Not a bad idea but you might want to set the timer as a reminder.
These are simple things which we can all do. What do you do to save energy?
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2 Comments so far
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Hi there,
What’s wrong with washing in cold water. Most washing detergents work perfectly in cold water….do we need to waste any more energy heating water to 30 degrees??
If you are happy with the result when your clothes are washed in cold water, then that’s great. Go for it!