Dishwashers

As with clothes washers, there are two related issues for dishwashers, overall energy use and water use. A significant portion of the energy used by dishwashers is actually the energy required for heating the water they consume, since almost all dishwashers on the market use internal booster heaters. That is actually a good thing, because it allows domestic hot water heater temperatures to be turned down to around 120 degrees, instead of the higher temperatures usually desired for dish washing. The lower water heater temperatures mean less energy is used on an ongoing basis with the higher temperature created only for the intermittent needs of the dishwasher. Specifying a dishwasher that requires less water to be heated and used by a dishwasher will result in more efficient operation. Many newer models have been documented to actually use half the water that conventional hand washing would require.

Bosch home appliances

A significant specification detail is to call for a dishwasher that incorporates soil-sensors, since they adjust water use depending on how dirty the dishes are in each load. Recent improvements in test procedures better estimate the energy consumption of soil-sensing dishwasher models, allowing more accurate comparisons on the yellow Energy Guide labels.

Cooking Appliances

As with clothes dryers, the fundamental specification choice for cooktops, ovens, and ranges is for either electricity or natural gas as the energy source. In most cases, the level of energy use for any single cooking appliance is small enough, and modern efficiencies are high enough, that no appreciable difference may exist between specifying gas over electric. Collectively, all cooking appliances together in a home could add up to 6.5 percent or 750 kWh per year of a typical home's energy bill, so providing highly efficient units over less efficient ones will make a difference overall.

Bosch home appliances

The ENERGY STAR® program currently does not rate cooking appliances, so specifications should not reference it. There are many other resources available, however, (see sidebar) so architects can readily find information to specify energy efficient and environmentally responsible appliances of all types.