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Stopped using my dishwasher for 30 days to save on the power bill and it backfired
My power bill in Tucson was sitting at $187 in July so I figured cutting the dishwasher would knock it down. Ran everything by hand for a month, hot water only, scrubbing pots like it was 1952.
Bill came back at $191. My neighbor Larry, who works for the utility, said heating the water in the sink actually costs more than the machine uses, plus I was standing there with the tap running half the time. Said most folks he talks to never check their water heater setting either. Mine was cranked to 140 the whole time.
So I turned the heater down to 120 and went back to the dishwasher. Next bill was $164. The thing I was trying to save money on was never the problem.
Curious if anyone here has actually measured this stuff or if we're all just guessing like I was. What did your bill do when you changed something around the house?
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ward.jamie12d ago
Water heater setting is the sneaky one, most people never touch it and 140 vs 120 can be real money over a month. Dishwashers actually use less water than hand washing too, so you were fighting the wrong battle the whole time. Grab a cheap kill-a-watt meter and check your fridge and any old freezers, those are usually the quiet drain nobody looks at.
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