Environmental Climatology
OK, so my laundry detergent makes a big deal out of how you can wash your clothes at 30 degrees, thereby saving power and therefore saving the planet. Wonderful and noble and so on. I'm all for saving the planet and such. So that's good.

One little niggle, though. During the spin cycle your washing machine spins around like a cunt for a good ten or more minutes. Given that your washing will quite happily drip-dry on the line and that most dryers are fully capable of removing any excess water, wouldn't removing the spin cycle save more power than not heating water up an extra ten degrees?
( Kroney, Thu 30 Apr 2009, 21:54, 13 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

Come back to this question tomorrow.
I can calculate this and give a definitive answer, actually. I suspect that heating the water takes more power.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Thu 30 Apr 2009, 22:08, Reply)

Probably not
I don't know the maths, but water has a high specific energy, meaning it will take a lot of energy to heat it up to a higher temperature.

In contrast, once your washer gets up to speed, it will require very little electrical energy to keep it spinning. This also removes excess water a LOT more efficiently than a tumble dryer - laundrettes, particularly larger and industrial ones, have dedicated spinners that reach some insane speeds because the spinning is so much more effective heating the water out - again, because of the large specific energy of water.
(Potty Jag har smör i min rumpspringa, Thu 30 Apr 2009, 22:09, Reply)

Ah
But you forget that the load isn't totally symmetric.

As such, you've got to force it round each turn.
This is why dryers have fucking great blocks of cement built into them.

If the load was symmetric then fine, it would spin like a wheel.
However, most dryers spin their loads round like a mong on a tyre swing.
I also suspect that heating the water (and clothes) would take more energy.
Maybe not by much though.
(Shippy likes linebreaks and doesn't care what you think, Fri 1 May 2009, 0:06, Reply)

I know nothing
of washing machine spin cycles and their carbon foot prints and so on. But if you want a more environmentally friendly solution to regular laundry detergent...http://www.gogreen.cellande.co.uk/shop/products/soapnuts/soapnuts.php

I've been using them for a couple of years now and they're awesome. One bag of them lasts about a month, so they even cost less than laundry detergent.
( fuck shit up the best you never had, Thu 30 Apr 2009, 22:12, Reply)

Another thing
My washing machine doesn't have a 30 degrees setting. So I should toss it in a landfill and get a new one? Seems eco-friendly to me.
( The Light in Chains don't touch the Pope's boner, Thu 30 Apr 2009, 22:23, Reply)

Nah, Mr. Chains,
Just take out the heating element and replace it with half a wire coathanger.
Problem solved :)
( Cawl, Thu 30 Apr 2009, 22:31, Reply)

If you want really eco-friendly, wash them all by hand using becky's eco-chips while bending over a stream.
Barring that, washing in cold water actually produces less wear and tear on your clothes than hot water does (ie less fading and/or shrinkage). Also, running an extra spin cycle cuts down your drying time in the dryer.

The extra spin cycle is a big hit in houses like mine where the dryer vents the heated moist air through a little tube up the fecking wall and into the attic.....which means to dry a load, I have to run the dryer 3 to 4 times. But that added spin cycle cuts my drying time down to 1-2 cycles.

Edit: I doubt any of these are eco-friendly, but they are supposed to be cheaper than purchasing acutal laundry soap:
tipnut.com/10-homemade-laundry-soap-detergent-recipes/
( flirting with badgers What? It sounded good at the time., Fri 1 May 2009, 4:05, Reply)

that cold wash and 30 degree stuff
is it biological stuff? if so I can't use the fucker anyway because Mrs V and I both have nasty skin reactions to it...

I do my part by turning off all my shit at the plugs and by having a dishwasher.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Fri 1 May 2009, 8:16, Reply)

@Shippy
Sorry, don't know how to do the nested replies.

I don't think the load being asymetrical would have that much of an effect on the amount of energy used to spin the drum. I agree it would increase it, but I still think that the energy used would be far less than the energy needed to raise the temperature of water by 10K. I'll be interested to see Loon's calculations.
(Potty Jag har smör i min rumpspringa, Fri 1 May 2009, 8:18, Reply)

@ Vipros
The 30 degree stuff doesn't have to be biological. I suspect the 15 degree stuff does....

Am also mega sensitive - can't even use a lot of the non-bio stuff out there.

But I always wash my stuff on 40. Except the dog's stuff and towels on HOT HOT HOT. Kill them bugs!
(Psyche finishes work at the end of June! Yay!!!, Fri 1 May 2009, 9:05, Reply)

I've decided to give them soap nuts a go
see how good they are at cleaning other stuff too, like the car, and the windows.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Fri 1 May 2009, 9:49, Reply)

@Hair Pot
Ok so keeping a symmetric load spinning wouldn't be that much - only whatever energy is required to accelerate the load to whatever angular velocity and all the energy losses you get at the bearings. However, since it's asymmetric there's excess load on the bearings all the time because you've got to force the load to rotate about a non-preferred axis.

Need to know the losses at the bearings, the time of the cycle etc.


P.S. You copy the number in the "I like this" link and then substitute that into the parent field of any "reply" url. Press go and you're there.
(Shippy likes linebreaks and doesn't care what you think, Fri 1 May 2009, 10:21, Reply)

Well...
Lets assume a washing machine consumes 300W over a 1/2 hour period (0.15kWh) to spin a standard load, and compare that against the extra effort required to heat e.g. 10l of water by 10 degrees Celsius (where 1 joule = the amount of energy required to heat ...

Oh, you know what? It's Friday. I can't be bothered.

Wash it by hand! :-)
(hangableautobulb is an anagram of the best album ever, on, Fri 1 May 2009, 16:51, Reply)