Random Thought Thread v2

[jayswin]

Anyone know any softball leagues that play weekends? Seems most are weeknights only.

[OutOfTheCube]

Anyone ever think that dishwashers might be a little excessive? Like if you're just washing something by hand you don't stand there for two hours blasting hot soapy water all over it over and over again, you just wash and scrub and are done in 30 - 90 seconds depending on how messy / caked on it was.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube

Anyone ever think that dishwashers might be a little excessive? Like if you're just washing something by hand you don't stand there for two hours blasting hot soapy water all over it over and over again, you just wash and scrub and are done in 30 - 90 seconds depending on how messy / caked on it was.

Your force you use with your hands is way higher than the force of the water pressure from the dishwasher.

Dishwasher also use less water as Everything is filtered and reused.

[Wormius]

I am curious about the trade-off point of how many things you need in the washer to make it worth running a load versus doing a couple of items by hand.

[chedder]

Originally Posted by Wormius

I am curious about the trade-off point of how many things you need in the washer to make it worth running a load versus doing a couple of items by hand.

Average kitchen faucet is 2 gallons per minute and a decent dishwasher uses 4 (or even 3) gallons per cycle.

So if you run the water for 2 minutes you might as well just run the dishwasher.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by chedder

Average kitchen faucet is 2 gallons per minute and a decent dishwasher uses 4 (or even 3) gallons per cycle.

So if you run the water for 2 minutes you might as well just run the dishwasher.

Doesn’t include the cost of electricity of course, nor the carbon emitted to produce said electricity.

I think it’s small enough that the dishwasher is still worth it.

[chedder]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Doesn’t include the cost of electricity of course, nor the carbon emitted to produce said electricity.

I think it’s small enough that the dishwasher is still worth it.

Agreed. I was just thinking of water. My sink takes so long to get hot water I'm probably burning more gas than the equivalent electricity useage in the dishwasher. Plus all that water down the drain.

It's so bad that I've thought of putting an electric point of use unit under the sink.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by chedder

Agreed. I was just thinking of water. My sink takes so long to get hot water I'm probably burning more gas than the equivalent electricity useage in the dishwasher. Plus all that water down the drain.

It's so bad that I've thought of putting an electric point of use unit under the sink.

Shouldn't you run the sink to get it hot before running the dishwasher anyway, though? That's what I do or else you just have cold water going into the dishwasher when you turn it on at which point you're using electricity in the dishwasher to heat up the water versus natural gas in the hot water heater. Wastes more water, though, but at least that is renewable and falls from the sky.

[chedder]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Shouldn't you run the sink to get it hot before running the dishwasher anyway, though? That's what I do or else you just have cold water going into the dishwasher when you turn it on at which point you're using electricity in the dishwasher to heat up the water versus natural gas in the hot water heater. Wastes more water, though, but at least that is renewable and falls from the sky.

I figure the dishwasher is running for 2 hours. So if it puts a little cold water in at the beginning it won't make much difference in either electricity usage or water temperature over the cycle. And the dishes come out clean. I could be totally out to lunch on this though.

[timun]

Something everybody should do: insulate your water pipes! It's absurd that buildings falling under Part 9 of the building code (small buildings, i.e. houses) (generally) don't have to have the water piping insulated, but in bigger buildings they do (it's required by the National Energy Code).

[timun]

Originally Posted by chedder

I figure the dishwasher is running for 2 hours. So if it puts a little cold water in at the beginning it won't make much difference in either electricity usage or water temperature over the cycle. And the dishes come out clean. I could be totally out to lunch on this though.

It's not really going to make that much difference in your electricity or water usage, but generally a dishwasher will work better if you feed it with hot water.

The dishwasher will do an initial pre-rinse, a main wash, and a final rinse. A newer model dishwasher (and by newer I mean, like... anything in the last thirty years or so) generally only uses a sum total of about 3-4 US gallons of water over these three rinses. If you've got your kitchen sink 50 ft from your water heater, the first "slug" of water in the piping will be about 0.5 gallons (assuming a 1/2" pipe) of cool (room temp.) water. Or, you could run the kitchen faucet for about 10-15 seconds, running about a penny's worth of water down the drain, and have piping hot water at the ready.

If your dishwasher is doing just fine without doing this: meh.

[topfiverecords]

Both of my houses have had the kitchen sink directly above the water heater on the floor below. What a blessing!

[timun]

Whereas mine is about 35 feet away—by far the most remote fixture from the water heater—so I run my sink for a few seconds to get the water nice and hot before turning on the dishwasher.



Also, w.r.t. your dishwasher's operation: buy the old-school powdered detergent, and fill the little indent on the door for the pre-rinse cycle! It'll help get the worst of the grime off your dishes before the main rinse cycle.

[EverfresH15]

People that wait in a long carwash line confuse me. I get if you are cars 1-4 but car 5-10 why not just come back? You are car 10 and say the coop one takes 5mins a car, you really want to sit there for an hr?

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

Both of my houses have had the kitchen sink directly above the water heater on the floor below. What a blessing!

My main floor bathroom is right above the water heater, and you get hot water instantly in that sink. The kitchen is only a few feet away, yet that sink takes a good 15-20 seconds to get hot water. I don't see how it's that big of a difference with such a short distance

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by timun

Something everybody should do: insulate your water pipes! It's absurd that buildings falling under Part 9 of the building code (small buildings, i.e. houses) (generally) don't have to have the water piping insulated, but in bigger buildings they do (it's required by the National Energy Code).

I can’t insulate my pipes that are on the main and 2nd floor obviously. I can only access the lines in the basement.

Is the cost of the insulation worth the energy savings? I would think not.

[timun]

In your case, with the lines boarded over, no, it's admittedly not worth it.

[Fuzz]

Do you, uhm, have any small children, or know any you could borrow?

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

I can’t insulate my pipes that are on the main and 2nd floor obviously. I can only access the lines in the basement.

Is the cost of the insulation worth the energy savings? I would think not.

We have some that are along an exterior wall to our basement wet bar and the hot water line seems to freeze in extremely cold temperatures. If I could insulate it to keep it from freezing and potentially bursting one day, I would. Also kind of weird how just the hot water line freezes, granted we usually just draw cold water from that faucet.

[Brendone]

Originally Posted by EverfresH15

People that wait in a long carwash line confuse me. I get if you are cars 1-4 but car 5-10 why not just come back? You are car 10 and say the coop one takes 5mins a car, you really want to sit there for an hr?

Probably the same people that sit idling in line at the Costco gas pumps. Good way to get away from the kids for a couple hours of peace and quiet. “Hey, gonna pop out to get some gas and a wash!”