Dishwashers

According to Energy Star, using a certified dishwasher can save you over 230 hours of personal time and more than 7,000 gallons of water each year. On top of all that, using an Energy Star dishwasher can save about $111 per year on your energy bill over hand-washing dishes.

Most of the energy used by a dishwasher is actually for water heating. Check the EnergyGuide when purchasing a dishwasher to determine how much power is needed per year to run the appliance and to heat the water based on the yearly cost of natural gas and electric water heating.

Look for models that have multiple cycle options so you can choose the cycle that best fits your load. If your dishes are only slightly soiled, you can use a light cycle that uses less water. Other options might include an energy-saving wash cycle or no-heat, air dry. 

Best Practices

Scrape don't rinse.

Rinsing dishes before loading them in the dishwasher increases the total water and energy used. Save yourself the rinsing - just scrape food off dishes. Energy Star certified dishwashers and today's detergents are designed to do the cleaning, so you don't have to. If your dirty dishes sit overnight, use your dishwasher's rinse feature. It uses a fraction of the water needed to hand rinse.

Load it up.

Dishwashers use about the same amount of energy and water regardless of the number of dishes inside, so run full loads whenever possible.

Skip the heat. 

Use a rinse agent and select the no-heat drying option. It gives good drying results with less energy.