The Environmental Impact of Laundry Equipment

Your choice of appliances can significantly impact your environmental footprint. For example front-loading clothes washers save quite a bit of water and energy, and because they use much less detergent they can reduce the harmful impact of laundry wastewater on ecosystems.   

The entries for the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon combined sophisticated cutting-edge technologies with simple, practical measures to achieve minimal environmental impact.  While other aspects of the design and construction of the houses varied widely, every entrant used a front-loading washing machine in order to save energy and water. And a young man from Purdue University proudly showed the jurors a "husband-proof washing machine" that automatially dispensed the right amount of water and detergent based upon the size each load of wash. 

Front-loading washing machines are normally more expensive than top-loading models, but they are much easier on both your clothes and the environment. Because front-loading washing machines have no agitators, you can do more laundry in a single load and avoid twisting your clothes. Top-loading washing machines waste water by filling up the tub twice, once during the wash cycle and again during the rinse cycle. Front-loading machines use sophisticated wash systems to flip or spin clothes through a stream of water and rinse clothes with repeated high-pressure spraying instead of soaking them in a full tub of water. Many of them have sophisticated sensors to monitor both water levels and temperatures.

Front-loading machines can save additional energy by reducing drying time.  Their spin mechanisms typically spin twice as fast as a top-loader canm so there's less water left in the laundry at the end of a drying cycle.  The "husband-proof" washing machine in Purdue University's Solar Decathlon house even has a special cycle for small loads that can eliminate the need to use a clothes dryer.

Most clothes dryers use quite a bit of energy.  If you are purchasing a new dryer, consider one with a moisture sensor in the drum that will automatically stop the drying cycle when the laundry is dry. And if you're not replacing your dryer, simple steps like only drying full loads and keeping the lint trap clean can still save energy. 

The Consortium for Energy Efficiency(CEE), a not-for-profit consotium whose members include many utility companies, rates washing machines from Tier I to Tier III based upon a combination of energy efficiency and water usage.  The chart on CEE's web site is updated monthly.