Today at 1340 I started running the hot tap to get the water to come hot. While it ran I cleared the washing up rack of clean dry things left from the breakfast washing up.
At 1343 I had a bowl of hot water and a clear rack. I pulled on my rubber gloves. I started washing while the tap filled the rinsing bowl.
It was a cooked lunch. There were pans, two chopping boards and a measuring jug as well as the plates and cutlery. At 1348 it was all done, a full rack of washed dishes were draining, and I had cleaned the kitchen surfaces. I took off my rubber gloves and went back to work.
I'd be interested to know from anyone who uses a dishwasher for day to day usage, how much time it takes to load a dishwasher and unload it when it's clean, including the time spent cleaning the filters and so on? Aside from the frustration of finding that the item you need is in the dishwasher waiting to be washed up, and the frustration of finding that the rack into which your item would fit is already full, and the cost to yourself and the environment of running a dishwasher, is there actually any saving in effort or time?
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Recent Comments
Followers
My favourite links
Blog Archive
-
▼
2007
(97)
-
▼
January
(21)
- Automatic doors 2
- Roast beetroot and potatoes with rosemary and garlic
- Heating 2
- What does it mean to be green?
- Automatic doors
- Washing up
- What does it mean to be green?
- Hot house peppers
- Heating
- The best way to get to Oxford
- Bicycles: episode 3
- 101 things not to do with a car
- Indulgences
- Offsetting carbon emissions
- What does it mean to be green?
- A list of my bicycles 2
- Bicycles: episode 2
- A list of my bicycles 1
- What does it mean to be green?
- Bicycles: episode 1
- Carbon footprints
-
▼
January
(21)
View posts by topic:
- Bicycles (21)
- local produce (17)
- children (16)
- cars (15)
- What does it mean to be green? (11)
- trains (11)
- carbon emissions (10)
- food miles (10)
- supermarkets (10)
- milk (9)
- seasonal produce (9)
- electricity (8)
- fuel (8)
- health (8)
- shopping (8)
- Carbon footprints (7)
- heating (7)
- air travel (6)
- beetroot (6)
- gas (6)
- English apples (5)
- baths and showers (5)
- milkman (5)
- oestrogen imitators (5)
- recipe (5)
- soya (5)
- buses (4)
- hormone disruption (4)
- hygiene (4)
- laundry (4)
- mod cons (4)
- weather (4)
- America (3)
- Europe (3)
- Green Party (3)
- MEP life (3)
- NHS (3)
- Nuclear power (3)
- Tesco (3)
- Who is in control? (3)
- academic life (3)
- anti-austerity (3)
- austerity (3)
- chocolate (3)
- cows (3)
- dairy products (3)
- deodorant (3)
- diet (3)
- fitness (3)
- fossil fuels (3)
- lighting (3)
- natural scent (3)
- obesity (3)
- parking (3)
- plastic (3)
- recycling (3)
- renewable energy (3)
- schools (3)
- semi-skimmed milk (3)
- throw away society (3)
- transport (3)
- vitamins (3)
- washing up (3)
- Christmas (2)
- Great bargains in charity shops (2)
- Greece (2)
- Iraq war (2)
- TTIP (2)
- aftershave (2)
- air conditioning (2)
- calcium (2)
- cattle (2)
- cycling (2)
- economics (2)
- emulsifier (2)
- energy (2)
- energy wars (2)
- fair trade (2)
- fresh produce (2)
- fruit (2)
- heart disease (2)
- homogenised milk (2)
- illness (2)
- natural (2)
- palm oil (2)
- perfume (2)
- pollution (2)
- sustainable lifestyle (2)
- taxation (2)
- vegan (2)
- vegetarianism (2)
- Burston (1)
- Cambridge (1)
- Christmas dinner (1)
- Citizens' income (1)
- Eurozone (1)
- Foreign affairs (1)
- Greenbelt (1)
- Gurdon (1)
- Norfolk (1)
- Norwich (1)
- Nuclear weapons (1)
- President of the Commission (1)
- Priorities (1)
- Russia (1)
- Trident (1)
- Wellcome (1)
- William Blake (1)
- allergies (1)
- beef (1)
- benefits (1)
- building design (1)
- business lunches (1)
- capitalism (1)
- cheese (1)
- cholesterol (1)
- climate change (1)
- clothes (1)
- congestion (1)
- consumer society (1)
- corks (1)
- cost of running a car (1)
- cotton (1)
- country living (1)
- de (1)
- debt (1)
- digital (1)
- divorce (1)
- equality (1)
- fat (1)
- fertility (1)
- finite resources (1)
- food intolerance (1)
- freedom (1)
- freedom of movement (1)
- gadgets (1)
- gardening (1)
- global warming (1)
- growth (1)
- hair conditioner (1)
- happiness (1)
- holidays (1)
- house prices (1)
- human capital (1)
- imports (1)
- incandescent bulbs (1)
- independence (1)
- industrial revolution (1)
- international peace (1)
- inventions (1)
- landfill (1)
- libraries (1)
- litter (1)
- local government (1)
- local pubs (1)
- lorries (1)
- low wattage bulbs (1)
- mending things (1)
- mowing (1)
- natural disasters (1)
- natural fibres (1)
- natural refrigeration; energy saving (1)
- oil spillage (1)
- open spaces (1)
- organic (1)
- paper (1)
- phthalates (1)
- physical labour (1)
- politics (1)
- population (1)
- radio (1)
- rainforests (1)
- rape (1)
- reconditioning (1)
- research funding (1)
- roadworks (1)
- scented soap (1)
- sea travel (1)
- sex (1)
- ships (1)
- skincare (1)
- small breweries (1)
- social housing (1)
- stairs (1)
- sugar (1)
- terrorism (1)
- trade unions (1)
- trees (1)
- vegetarian food (1)
- ventilation (1)
- war (1)
- water (1)
- wild cats (1)
- wind power (1)
- wine (1)
About the Author
The author is the Green Party MEP for the East of England (Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Herts and Beds). Before election (in 2019) she was Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK. She has published extensively, books and articles on Ancient Philosophy, including Plato.
Before her election as MEP, Professor Rowett stood as the Green Party Parliamentary Candidate for South Norfolk, for the General Elections of 2015 and 2017, and for several county and city council seats in the Norwich and South Norfolk areas.
The views expressed on this blog are about a variety of things. Some of them are views and discussions about Green Party policies and about the policies of other parties in the UK and abroad. None of the views or reflections on this page are official party lines. Some of the views expressed here are critical of policies that may have once been endorsed by the Green Party of England and Wales, or may currently or in future be endorsed by the Party in its manifesto. The author's view is that people should be invited to think for themselves. There is no reason why you have to agree with everything that the party says. It may still be the best party for you, and if you join it, you can influence what it stands for!
The University of East Anglia is a world class research university with a particular reputation in Environmental Science. It hosts the Carbon Connections Programme and the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and several other important research groups. There is a lively interdisciplinary Ecology research group in the School of Politics, Philosophy and Language & Communication Studies (PPL).
The University of East Anglia is a world class research university with a particular reputation in Environmental Science. It hosts the Carbon Connections Programme and the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and several other important research groups. There is a lively interdisciplinary Ecology research group in the School of Politics, Philosophy and Language & Communication Studies (PPL).
Professor Rowett's recent research in the political philosophy of Plato has appeared in a range of highly respected philosophy publications.
About Me
A note about copyright
Some posts on this Blog quote material that is subject to copyright, either in printed sources or in resources on the internet. For the most part I don't ask for permission to use these, but I am happy to remove them if the copyright owner feels that they are infringing some rights.
If you are the holder of the copyright, please indicate your concerns by posting a comment or sending an e-mail to me.
4 comments:
Hello Catherine. Just found your blog - very interesting!
It should be noted that your total time for washing up only covers 1 meal and 1 person. A dishwasher would typically be used only once a day, and would probably have the capacity to cater for the load generated by a family of 4+
Given that your manual washing up takes 8 minutes for one meal. Let's assume:
Time for 3 meals (3x8) = 24mins
Add 50% for family of 4 = 36mins
Suddenly the time saving doesn't look so great for the manual washing... I know it takes me near 30mins sometimes to do a full day's worth in the evening (I tend to leave the drying-up to God...) However, the effort of loading/unloading a machine can be a real pain, and certainly isn't worth the trouble unless you have a very large family!
I can imagine some situations in which it might be more efficient to use the dishwasher: in a house with electric heating (or gas heating but during the summer months when not used) and electric shower etc.
I wonder if, in this situation, it would be more efficient (and therefore greener, given that 20% of electricity is supposed to come from renewables) to use a dishwasher rather than burning gas to keep the water tank full of hot water...
Hi Richard,
I admit it was a meal for one, but it was a main meal with pans, and you don't usually have that three times a day.
The pans might be a size larger for a whole family but that doesn't really take any longer. So for the main meal for a family of four one needs to add three more bowls, three more plates, glasses, knives, forks and spoons. Perhaps double the time for that meal?
Of course the draining rack might get full (which is a further good reason for not doing a massive wash at the end of the day), but if there are several people eating there should be one to dry up the dishes, which makes it a sociable activity as well as green.
Doing it all at the end of a day is a sad way to end your day in my view (unless it's done in a sociable way). It also leads to problems with not enough room for the dirties while you're trying to do the cooking. Much to be avoided in my opinion.
Also the surfaces get a good wipe three times a day, and the washing up water never needs changing if you do it little and often.
As for hot water, I suspect on any calculation the dishwasher is more extravagant even than running a bowl of water three times a day. But I haven't explored to find out.
"Doing it all at the end of a day is a sad way to end your day in my view"
I admit I'm probably in a small minority of people who actually enjoy washing up... I find it quite a nice way to end the day sometimes. It's a chance to disengage the brain and listen to some nice music - very therapeutic!
"Also the surfaces get a good wipe three times a day,"
Ah, but once a surface is covered with a dirty plate/dish it can't get any grubbier ;-)
"and the washing up water never needs changing if you do it little and often"
I challenge myself (sad, isn't it?) to use just the one bowel of hot water. I don't think I've failed yet with the amount of dishes the 2 of use get through. It's all about the order in which you wash things!
Actually, I don't know why I'm arguing for doing it in three batches. I'm actually generally in favour of doing breakfast with lunch or lunch with supper, especially if lunch is just a plate and a glass!
Post a Comment