If you love handwashing your dishes where your sink looks out over your back yard and you do it together with your kids, you'll probably want to skip this one. Go ahead and choose joy here.
For me, handwashing dishes does not bring me joy - it's one of those tasks that I always want to put off. For a long time, though, I did it anyway as I thought it was probably better for water and energy usage. Especially at times when we have been on a well rather than city water, I thought I should do my best to use less water. For a long time, I used it only as a convenient drying rack, or occasional extra help when we had big meals with extra dishes.
Imagine my jubilation when I learned that - with some exceptions - using a dishwasher in fact uses LESS water and energy! Huzzah!
2006 study by Waterwise found that while the average dishwasher uses between 12 and 16 litres (3-4.25 gallons) of water, washing dishes by hand uses as much as 63 litres (16.5 gallons)!
Need more?
The University of Bonn did a more detailed study and found that hand washing used as much as 103 liters (27 gallons) of water, 2.5 kWh of water-heating energy, and approximately 80 minutes of time (washing, drying, putting away). The dishwasher, on the other hand, used approximately 15 liters (4 gallons) of water, consumed 1-2 kWh of total energy, and required just 15 minutes of human time (loading, unloading, putting away).
These numbers are going vary depending on your usual dishwashing method, but here's my takeaway - just go ahead and use your dishwasher! (Science says so!)
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