On Thu, 25 Jan 2007 23:17:35 GMT, AZ Nomad
wrote:

On Thu, 25 Jan 2007 22:34:02 GMT, Malcolm Hoar wrote:


In article . com, "Terry" wrote:
I have been told that the dry cycle of the dishwasher is the energy hog
so I quit using it.

I was going to use something I had just washed in the dishwasher. When
I opened the door it was still warm inside.

My question is will the dishes dry faster if I leave them inside with
the door closed (while warm) or open the door and let the water
evaporate?

Typically, door open. And yes, skipping the heated drying cycle
will normally save a significant amount of energy. However, it
could be different for your dishwasher/kitchen so I'd suggest
you conduct your own experiment versus believing everything you
read on Usenet ;-)


Of course that'll only work if you don't use AC. In the summer you'll heat
the room with all that escaping heated water vapor and raise your cooling
bill.

Do you think you will heat the room less if the water vapor is trapped
in the dishwasher?

Let me think about this. hmmmm Actually, if the door is open and
the water evaporates, it will actually cool the room, specifically the
surface that the water was sitting on and the air nearby. Whenever
water evaporates, it cools. And it raises the humidity.

But if you left the door shut after the cycle was over, the heat would
still disperse in all directions, through the door, the metal top (and
the counter above it), the metal back (and the wall behind it), the
metal sides and bottom and cabinets and floor next to them. It would
take a while and you couldn't sense it, but the AC would still have to
remove the heat to reach the thermostat setting.

What about the water that cooled but didn't evaporate? It would still
evaporate when you opened the dishwasher door, it would still cool**
just as much, and it would still raise the humidity just as much, but
it would have taken longer.

**I forget what it is called but it takes a lot of heat to turn water
from a liquid to a gas, many times more than it does to raise the temp
of water 1 degree. The water absorbs the heat from other things,
making the other things cooler.