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Clean It Cool
Wash Your Clothes in Cold Water Instead of Hot
HOW
There are two ways to reduce the amount of energy used for washing clothes—use less water and use cooler water. Unless you're dealing with oily stains, the warm or cold water setting on your machine will generally do a good job of cleaning your clothes.
WHY
The average American family washes almost 400 loads of laundry each year. About 90 percent of the energy used for washing clothes in a conventional top-load washer is for heating the water. Switching your temperature setting from hot to warm can cut a load's energy use in half.
Math and Assumptions
- Washing a load of laundry on hot uses an average of 1.44 kWh of electricity.
- Washing in warm or cold water reduces energy use by 50 percent.
- The average family does 400 loads of laundry per year. Source: http://www.energystar.gov/clotheswashers
- Cost of electricity ($0.113/kWh) is pulled from the Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Outlook 2009 (converted from 2007 to 2008 dollars). Source: http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/aeo/
- Average GHG emissions (output) per kWh of 1.54 lbs of CO2 equivalent is sourced from EPA’s Climate Change Action Plan (CCAP) number for 2009.
For more on how Do Your Part! calculates Co2 savings, please visit our Carbon Accounting page.
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