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90% of the energy used by a washing machine goes just to heat the water. You can save a lot of money by lowering the temperature, or buying a machine that uses less water (or both).
- How much energy can you save by lowering the water temperature? A lot. Here's the cost when your water is heated with electricity, assuming you pay 15¢ per kilowatt-hour:
Wash/Rinse Setting |
Electricity Use kWh/yr |
Cost per year |
Hot / Cold |
1,547 |
$232 |
Warm / Cold |
825 |
$124 |
Cold / Cold |
103 |
$15 |
| Assumes 39-gallon model, 380 loads/yr. (7.5 loads/wk.), and water heated electrically at a cost of 15¢/kWh. As reprinted from the Rocky Mountain Institute. |
- If you use natural gas to heat your hot water your costs to heat water would be about one third the costs in the table.
- Washing your clothes in hot instead of cold uses more electricity than leaving the refrigerator door open 24 hours a day. (Fridge open 24/7: 215 watts x 14.4 extra hours day x 365 days/yr. = 1130 kWh.)
- Always use cold water for the RINSE cycle. Using warm or hot water for the Rinse cycle doesn't get your clothes any cleaner.
- Try using warm or cold water for the WASH cycle instead of hot water. Hot water shrinks your clothes, anyway. Hot water also fades and wears your clothes out quicker.
- If you feel that warm water doesn't clean as well for you as hot, then just use a warm pre-soak. Soaking clothes in warm water is usually just as good or better than hot water with no soak.
Savings:
For every load of wash/week that you wash in cold water you will save about $15/year if you have an electric water heater and $5.50/year if you have a natural gas water heater. So if you wash 5 loads a week in cold water you will save $75/year (electric water heater) or $23/year (gas water heater).
Learn more on our Appliances and Clothes Dryers pages.
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Home Energy Savings