Join the Cold War!


It is way past time to push people to wash with cold water. Washing with cold water saves almost as much energy as using a clothesline. Join the Cold War!

 

Beat the Heat, Wash in Cold!
A whopping 90 percent of the energy used by a washing machine goes to just heating the water.  You could save $60 or more on your annual energy spending by washing at least four out of every five loads in cold water!  And you could reduce your carbon dioxide emissions by 72 pounds in just one month by doing so!  Washing in hot water is more likely to clean out your wallet than your apparel.  Today’s more efficient clothes washers and laundry detergents make it possible to get even whites clean in cold water.

  • Wash at least four out of five loads of laundry in cold water—you’ll save your clothes from quick wear and your money too!
  • Be sure to tell your friends too because these actions can really add up: if every household in the U.S. makes the switch to cold water for four out of five loads, together we'll save $6.7 BILLION per year and keep nearly 50 million tons of carbon out of the atmosphere – the equivalent of removing 10 million cars from the road!

This information and more can be found at http://c3.newdream.org/.

 

The following are facts provided by the Coin Laundry Association about laundromats as a green alternative to doing your wash at home.

  • Using self-service laundries greatly reduces the overall level of water consumption in your community. During times of water shortage and drought, self-service laundries are a significant way for communities to conserve water.
  • Home washing machines typically consume 30 to 40 gallons of water per wash load, or 2.5 to 3.0 gallons per pound of clothes laundered. High-efficiency, commercial clothes washers found in self-service laundries typically use as little as 0.5 to 1.5 gallons of water per pound of clothes laundered. The average coin laundry saves their community millions of gallons of water over the course of a year.
  • Commercial clothes washers are designed by manufacturers to deliver superior washing results while consuming the absolute minimum volume of water.
  • Utilities are the single greatest expense for the operation of self-service laundries. Laundry owners are driven by profitability to install the most efficient equipment possible for their customers.
  • Further water-savings are achieved in self-service laundries as consumers launder full loads of clothes, whereas home launderers tend to under load washers and unnecessarily waste water.
  • Typical self-service laundries present even greater water savings by offering large-capacity washers that can wash multiple loads of laundry at a fraction of the water consumption. Most stores have washers as large as a 50lb. capacity which enables customers to launder four to five loads in a single machine.
  • Self-service laundries provide a basic public health service to the community. The coin laundry industry serves many of the lower income residents who cannot afford to own and operate their own washers and dryers.


For more information, visit http://www.coinlaundry.org.

 

 

According to Tide, one can save up to 80% of energy per load by washing in cold. This is based on conversion from warm/cold to cold/cold cycle and using a vertical axis machine with electric water heater set at 140º F.

You might be interested in a Time Magazine piece which reports, "A recent study by Cambridge University's Institute of Manufacturing found that 60% of the energy associated with a piece of clothing is spent in washing and drying it. Over its lifetime, a T-shirt can send up to 9 lbs. of carbon dioxide into the air."

According to Amory Lovins and the Rocky Mountain Institute, this is the Electricity Consumption, Cost, and CO2 Emissions of the Clothes Washer & Electric Dryer:

Appliance

Electricity
kWh/yr

Cost
$/yr

CO2 emitted

Clothes washer (incl. hot water)

1,080

86

1,544

Clothes washer (excl. hot water)

99

8

142

Clothes dryer

1,060

85

1,516

A $1 rebate for cold water detergent worked in Canada! Suggest that your utility follow the Electric or Gas Savings by Switching to Cold program's lead.

Well Dressed cover"Well dressed? The present and future sustainability of clothing and textiles in the United Kingdom"

The Sustainable Manufacturing Group is part of the Institute for Manufacturing at Cambridge University. This report from them presents the outcome of a five person-year study conducted at the Institute for Manufacturing on the future supply of clothing and textiles to the UK. The bulk of the work of the project was a scenario analysis of various future means to meet the UKs demand for clothing and textiles. The scenarios were developed with three case study products, and analyzed according to the "triple bottom line", including environmental life cycle costs, calculation of national accounts and prediction of employment changes.