Chico, Sustainable

Sometimes trying to do the right thing just isn't easy.

The dishwasher, hot water tank and my house's 1959 water pipes are conspiring against me and my eco-conscious ways.

I try to wash dishes in the most energy and water-efficient manner possible. The Green Industry would have you believe that this is a pretty basic exercise:

Wash a full load of dishes in the dishwasher, rather than by hand. Do not pre-rinse the dishes. Ideally, use an Energy-Star dishwasher on Normal Cycle. Allow your dishes to air-dry.

All of this is fine, assuming you have a dishwasher. If you are washing by hand, try to do so without keeping the water running. People who have bought dishwashers know they are not cheap appliances, especially good dishwashers. Many folks are stuck with what they have. However, when it does come time to replace your dishwasher, and you can afford it, get an energy-efficient one. Also, spending a little extra for a well-made dishwasher can save money in the long run in terms of being able to avoid maintenance costs.

Which brings us to the present dilemma. I have the Energy-Star dishwasher, and I am using the normal wash cycle, and I am letting my dishes air-dry. Yet I am still wasting water and energy. Here's why:

1) The manual begins by instructing me to run the water in the sink until the water gets hot. For the antiquated piping system in my house, that requires, sadly, about a minute and a half of letting the water run down the sink. The best I can do is time when I run the dishwasher to coincide to when I am washing larger pots and pans, otherwise I am wasting water.

2) If the water is not hot enough for the dishwasher, I am told that it will heat the water up itself, though its hot water heater is less efficient than that of the house. This is why the manual says to run water in the sink first to get the water hot.

3) I keep the hot water heater in my house set on "warm," which is fine a fine temperature for showers and washing clothes, but is apparently below the "ideal temperature" for doing dishes (I have been told that at lower temperatures the dish soap doesn't "activate" and clean the dishes properly). So even after I have run the hot water in the sink for the sake of the dishwasher, the dishwasher still needs to heat the water further.

4) Lastly, I could set the temperature on my hot water heater higher, but the issue is that the previous owners felt that the house needed a 50 gallon tank. Keeping that much water heated to the hottest temperature simply for the sake of the dishwasher (which is run 1-2 times a week) doesn't make much sense. The tank is less than three years old, so economically there is no point to replacing it at the present time (though when we do we will likely consider a tankless system).

It's all just frustrating. That's all I've got to say.

Almost makes one want to switch to using disposable paper plates and plastic utensils.

Just kidding.