Will rinsing my dishes in cold water cut down on my energy use

Question

I've heard a lot about washing/rinsing clothing in cold water to cut down on energy bills and use. I was wondering if the same would go for dishes. I'm still going to wash them in hot water to kill the bacteria, but will it be safe/will it cut energy use to rinse them in cold water?

Answer 1

HI Pretty.

Good idea because yes it will.  The bad news, however,  cold water will not destroy bacteria.  No problem.

I use to work at a school where the cafeteria workers used cool water to rinse the dishes but, they added a little bleach to the water, which did kill all the viruses or bacteria and you could do the same thing.

For a sink of water,  use 1/4 cup of white bleach.

You take care of two issues at once.

Thanks for reading.

Answer 2

yeah washing your clothies in cold water will cut on energy use, but they take lionger to dry than hot water becuase hot evaporates easier. consider line drying you clothes/ cold water also helps your clothes to stay in better shape longer. if youre using soap in either situation i wouldnt worry about bacteria. if youre not heating up water, then your saving energy either way.

Answer 3

I've been doing this for a couple of weeks and the only thing I notice is that drying them takes more effort because hot water evaporates faster.  So you will save on your hot water bill but you will invest more time and if you end up using more than one towel you will have a slight increase in your laundry expense.

Answer 4

If you scrap the food off the dishes and wash them right after you use them you don't need to rinse them at all.  

Answer 5

yeh you would cut energy by using cold water instead of hot

and even more energy if you use anti-basterial washing soap instead of hot water

answer mine please http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?...

Answer 6

I try to conserve whereever possible, but I still rinse my dishes before I put them in the dishwasher. I don't turn the faucet on all the way and I use cold water. Anytime you use cold water instead of hot you are saving the energy used to heat the water.