Front-loaders are vastly different between the North American market and Europe or Korea. I remember my friend's brand new LG in California would run an eco-friendly cycle in 40 minutes. A similar model in Europe takes 4h30!
If anyone is looking for ideas on how to make the world a better place, look into figuring out how to shift the culture so that air drying becomes more common. Also composting toilets.
Edit: Drying clothes uses 56 billion kWh of energy in the US.[1] Another related area that needs work is standby power.[2]
[1] https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=96&t=3
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/science/just-how-much-pow...
Socially, improving commuting infrastructure so people waste less gas would easily have a larger benefit and you are not going to fight nearly as hard.
Etc etc, this might be top 50 but it's not a top 10 and it's hard.
People waste so much energy without thinking about it and for reasons that aren't particularly more convenient, like using disposable dishware instead of just rinsing off your plate when you're done. I look around at my peers even here in Mexico and see a shift, like asking for no straw when ordering a michelada.
So focusing on the specific energy usage of dryers begins to sound near-sighted. Nobody suggested that dryers alone cause all waste.
PS: For manufactured products cost is often a reasonable first approximation of environmental impact. When you get 300 paper plates for 2 cents each they really can't take many resources to manufacture. Further, by ending up in a landfill they actually act as a carbon sink.
Washing a few dishes by hand just takes a moment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_hypothesis
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/23/children-all...
https://www.webmd.com/allergies/news/20150223/could-a-dishwa...
That's not true of modern front-load washers. At my old (UK) flat we had an old Beko front-loading clunker. It worked perfectly well but was very noisy and took a long time (not 4 hours though! maybe 1.5 - 2 hours).
At my current place we have a much more modern one where a fast/economy cycle takes 36 minutes. It's nice and quiet too.
Edit: here's an example: http://www.lg.com/uk/washing-machines/lg-FH4A8TDN2#
- 60°C full load 297 minutes
- 60°C partial load 244 minutes
- 40°C partial load 239 minutes
I have no idea why it does that.
I have no idea what the difference between the cotton and the mixed load settings is, but I usually do the shorter cycle if I have a lot of loads to do.
And for the comparison to be correct you need to compare an eco mode quick wash - normally a light load.
I'm trying to. The standardized annual power consumption that is advertised on the energy rating is only accurate if you use the default settings for 40 and 60°C cotton cycles. And that is effectively 4 hours at 40°C for a partial load. I saw the advertised "turbowash" cycle, however while it's supposed to be energy efficient, you have to take LG's word for it.
In the US, while models differ in size, if you look at a similar price range and load capacity, you'll see that numbers used for the energy rating are pretty similar (around 100 kWh or less). But, to my knowledge, the default cycles are fairly short. Sadly neither Samsung nor LG seem to publish cycle length in their manuals.
Slow wash cycles are more efficient. Loosening the dirt by soaking means that less agitation is required. Manufacturers cheat the mandatory efficiency tests by making the default cycle very slow, but offering faster cycle settings. My washing machine takes nearly four hours for a standard cotton cycle, but has a "speed perfect" button that reduces the wash time to under an hour. I always use the fast setting.
It is, perhaps, a little deceptive if people believe their machines are more efficient than they really are on the commonly used cycles.
The way to solve this would be to improve the efficiency tests so that they test the efficiency of a fast cycle as well as an economy/long cycle.
I guess if you're setting it running in the morning and then heading out for the day, 4-5 hours isn't a problem. But often I end up doing all the laundry on one day: clothes as well as towels, bed sheets, etc, in multiple loads, and don't want to be waiting around too long for each load to finish...
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32...
These cycles take longer. AIUI it's to compensate for reduced temperature (saving the bulk of the energy) and reduced water usage.