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"croy" wrote
And the Energy Star folks are touting that automatic
dishwashers are more efficient than hand-washing dishes. But
if you run it to ground, they are basing that on just two
tests, one of which I couldn't find any data, and the other
which I could only find the most general info about the
test, and very opinionated summary of the results.

Energy Star aside, there are many test showing you use less water to use the
machine with a fairly full load versus hand washing. The Star just takes it
to a higher level as the newer machine use even less water than older ones.

..

I wonder if we wouldn't save a lot more if there were no new
appliances to be had--we just make do with what we've got,
and fix them as needed.

If you take the cradle to grave scenario, yes it often pays to continue to
use the old. A few eyars back, I replaced a troublesome old small second
refrigerator with a new larger frost free model and my electric consumption
dropped $10 a month. Not a bad payback on a $400 box, but if it was the
main kitchen fridge at $1500, that is much too long for just energy as the
factor.

My new oil fire boiler is saving about 330 gallons of oil a year. Still a
long payback, but it is paying its own way.