Efficient Laundry: Wash Clothes in Cold Water to Save Energy
At the Clinton Global Initiative on Sept. 21, 2011, Proctor & Gamble (P&G) and the Alliance to Save Energy announced that they are teaming up to get the word out about cold-water washing.
Their message: Heating water to do laundry is one of the largest users of energy in a typical home. So, switch to washing in cold water – it gets clothes just as clean as hot water, while using less energy and money.
Reduce Carbon Emissions by Switching to Cold Water
Energy Star states that almost 90% of the energy consumed by a washing machine goes to heating water. Switching from hot or warm water to cold water washing saves that energy. In fact, each household that makes the switch to cold-water washing eliminates about 1,600 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year, according to the Sierra Club.
But if the benefits are so obvious, why haven’t people made the switch before? Although cold water has long been used for certain garments, many people have assumed that only hot water could really get clothes clean. That’s just partly true.
Get Clothes Clean and Save Money with Cold Water Detergents
Heat is one of three main ingredients in cleaning clothes – mechanical energy (in the form of your washing machine agitating clothes) and chemicals are the other two, according to a recent New York Times article. So, you can take out one of the ingredients as long as you improve the others, James Danzinger, a senior scientist who works on detergents for P&G, told the Times.
Cold-water specific detergents do just that. Whereas older soaps only worked well with hot water, new cleaning agents are chemically formulated for cold water. These cold-water detergents perform the same as or better than traditional detergents, as rated by Consumers Reports. In fact, P&G’s Tide Coldwater, one of many detergents specifically designed for cold water, is ranked above many regular detergents onConsumer Reports’ detergents list,.
Cold-water detergents also cost about the same as their warm-water competitors, with the additional benefit of reducing energy use by over three-quarters. This can add up to substantial savings every time you do laundry.
Energy-Saving Tips
Washing clothes in cold water with cold-water detergents not only will save energy and money – it also will preserve fabric color. To save even more energy while washing and drying your laundry, the Alliance recommends that you:
- Do full loads of laundry. Filling up your washing machine with water requires energy, and it’s a waste if done for a partial load.
- Do not over-wash clothes. Delicate and gently worn clothes don't need as long of a wash cycle as soiled, sturdy clothes.
- Clean the dryer lint filter after every load. A lint-free filter improves air circulation and quickens drying, whereas a clogged filter and vent can cause a home fire.
- Separate light and heavy items before drying. Lightweight items take less drying time, so don’t waste dryer time by throwing your undergarments and t-shirts in with your towels and rugs.
- Don't over-dry clothes. Take clothes out while they are still slightly damp to reduce the need for ironing — another energy user. If your dryer has an auto-dry feature, use that instead of the timer.
More on the Alliance-P&G Partnership
The Alliance-P&G partnership aims to educate 100 million U.S. households by Earth Day 2013 about cold-water washing. Part of this goal is to convert 70% of washing machine loads to cold water washing by 2020.
Blog Type: Efficiency News
Programs: Appliance Standards Awareness Project, Communications Program
I'll definitely start doing that. It's easy to implement and saves energy. I'm always on the lookout for tips like these. Here's some more good ones www.wiktip.org/5-energy-saving-tips/
Tip: I've found that adding a squirt of Bac Out Odor and Stain Remover to the wash water helps to remove odors when washing synthetic sports clothing in cold water.
If you ever get bed bugs you've got a far worse problem that washing in hot water or not. My understanding is that the only really effective way to get rid of them is to hire a company that can heat the interior of your house up to 140 deg for 6-8 hours. It kills termites almost as well as tenting too and is non-toxic.
I'm appalled that you would even mention using a dryer. Most of the world hangs up their clothes to air dry, even in industrialized countries. Seems to me that a lot more energy goes into machine drying than in using warm water in the laundry.
How cold is cold? Washes in the 70 degree F water coming out of my cold water faucet now clean fine. But in February, the water is 40 degrees or less, and my freshly laundered clothes still have odors.
"Cold" seems relative.
We have been using cold water summer and winter for five years, and there are no odors from our clothes
Do you live in a place where the cold water gets really chilly in the winter? I find I cannot get the smell out of my sweaty underthings in really cold water. I'm not dissing cold water washes, just sharing my experiences.
And I'm interested in any data or studies on exactly what the temperature range is for "cold" in effective coldwater washes.
My water comes from a 260 ft deep well, so it's cold year round, and I go to the gym four times a week and bring home clothes that are soaked with sweat, so I'm not sure why you are having this issue.
I live up in Minnesota and am wondering the same thing. In the dead of winter, our "warm" water setting (on a very primative no-thermostat mix washing machine) produces water at about the same temperature as does the cold water setting in the summer. Tom, with a well your water it will actually be appreciably warmer in the dead of winter than that coming through surface pipes (this is why geothermal heat pumps can extract heat from the ground year-round).
I'm a chemist and I'm confident that both the surfactant and suspension properties of any detergent will go down at lower temperatures; Tide Coldwater is just formulated to have more of each, so that they are still sufficient at lower temperatures. That said, odor removal isn't likely to be largely dependent on either of these.
Subswoman, do you have any more luck on the odor removal front when you do use the warmer "cold" water?
p.s. I'll testify for the importance of cleaning the lint filter in a dryer; we did a quantitative study on it with an electric dryer once and the difference in energy use was significant. However, Margaret is dead-on about avoiding a dryer when possible. In the winter, drying indoors also helps maintain indoor humidity levels, and I find things dry even more quickly than they do in the summer, even in a "cold" basement.
My well water is the same temperature year round, with the exception of the initial "charge" of water contained in surface piping, nonetheless, I do not detect any odors in the clothing, summer or winter. Perhaps the fact that we do not use an electric or gas clothes dryer has an influence on this. We dry on an outdoor clothesline except when there is precipitation.
Looks like someone asked P&G about this at one point, and this is the answer they got:
http://www.mysears.com/Washers-Dryers--4003/topics/How-Cold-Can-The-Wate...
Based on that, they are claiming even nearly ice-cold water should work; but I'm still keen to hear about experiences and potential workarounds, like the Bac Out that Margaret mentioned. Margaret, I assume that stuff works well, in your experience?
So how are the new steam washers impacting energy-use and how are you expecting people dealing with bedbugs- an apprently growing nationwide problem that suggests hot water washing is effective for treating that issue?
In the case of bedbugs or other problems such as lice etc, you would certainly use hot water, but since you do not normally have bedbugs you don't normally need to use hot water.
