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Comment by GeneticGenesis | Hacker News Reader

A more energy efficient dishwasher would be nice though...

And indeed, the author mentions exactly this:

> An engineer with no such customer awareness and instead an incessant obsession with optimizing everything that can be optimized, might try to optimize for speed… when it’s likely the consumer cares more about: cleanliness, energy rating and capacity.

I don’t want more energy efficient things. I want more clean energy so that the things I use can work better by using as much energy as they need instead of cutting corners for efficiency.

Your children, if you have any, should make for rather efficient dishwashers at no additional cost if you play it smart.

Except for the drastically increased amount of water usage. The cost is negligible to run the dishwasher compared to the additional hot water usage.

That is a fair point, although I wonder how long this will hold true considering the ever increasing prevalence of heatpumps, sun-boilers, and other such equipment.

Stuff you should know did an episode on dishwashers and I believe if you washed your dishes for a minute, you've already used more water than a dishwasher. It was pretty mindblowing. They did, though, go through some studies that made it seem that dishwashers were too sterile and getting a little leftover or germ from your handwashed plates was better for your immune system.

There is an opportunity cost. Time spent washing dishes means time not doing something more productive.

That is precisely why you should let your $0/hr spawn pick up this menial task rather than doing it yourself - assuming your time is worth more than theirs, obviously :)

If your spawn is only worth $0/hr., they won’t have the capacity to handle it. If they are worth anything more, they would be more productive elsewhere. The income they produce for you will more than pay any dishwasher costs.

That's the current tradeoff in dishwashers (and washing machines), more energy efficiency means lower temperature, and then the detergents take longer to work. This is why we have 3:30 eco programs.

They are already pretty good.

Like 1 to 2 kwh, probably substantially less if you dont use heated dry.

The worst dishwashers sold in the EU still use less than 1 kWh on the eco program.

https://www.coolblue.de/en/advice/energy-consumption-dishwas...

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