Energy savings - Dishwasher compared to hand-washing

I have been on a mission to lower our electric bill and I think I have been pretty successful. Most of the cut in rate is due to replacing many of our light bulbs from traditional ones to CFL ones, having new applicances, air drying laundry in the house and unplugging all unused electronics.

My last change was to try hand washing dishes versus using our 2005 Kitchenaid dishwasher. I did not know if there would be any savings or not because I have heard that new dishwashers are very energy efficient.

According to our recent utility bills, hand washing dishes saved both electricity and water.



3/25/08-4/24/08 Electric usage was 614 and cost $61.02

Water usage was 49 and cost $15.36



4/24/08-5/22/08 Electric usage was 485 and cost $51.64

Water usage was 42 and cost $13.68



These 2 months had mild weather so we were not using the heater or air conditioner. I am pretty happy with those low totals but now we are in summer and using our air conditioner and it will add more than $100 to each month.



The $11 savings from hand washing dishes will not make much difference in our budget so I plan on hand washing when I want to but will load that dishwasher if I am tired or we have lots of dirty dishes.



But I am getting more and more unhappy with the energy situation across the board from gasoline to home utilities. I may just decide my protest will be to use as little energy as possible and if I do, I will be hand washing everything.