Is it OK to plug a washing machine into an extension lead?

[winston1]

I have a hot-fill machine. I run the hot tap in the futility room for long enough to run hot before pressing the start button.

So as JohnW2 suggested above you 'discard' the 'hot' water until it becomes hot enough to serve the purpose.

 

[JohnD]

yes, but my method actually does it!

Energy cost by gas is so much lower that it is still economically viable.

The machine may still use the heating element when it considers it necessary.

 

[ericmark]

In larger houses even in the UK we have circulation pumps to insure as soon as we turn on the tap we have hot water. No manufacturer could really know how long supply pipes are so I would not think this has a bearing on lost of hot fill. Items like egg should always be washed off with cold water, hot water can set these items so it makes some sense to start with cold then slowly heat so any dirt which would be set with hot water is washed of before the water gets hot.

It would seem washing machine efficiency is based on 260 washes per year, and it lasting 12 years. They are calculated at between 191 ~ 208 kWh/annum former being 2001 figures latter 2013 figures. It would seem a 60°C cotton programme at full and partial load and a 40°C cotton programme at partial load are both used in the calculations. There has been some criticism in that some machines never reach the 60°C because of the load sensing and varying the amount of water used it is near impossible to actually calculate the kWh/annum because there are too many variations.

We have just heard in the news how VW cars were cheating and using a engine management program to get inflated energy efficiency to sell more cars in USA. It would seem this is going on all the time with tricks played to show a car or any other item for that matter is better than it really is. The government is to blame for a lot of it by not devising real tests. One Vauxhall car shows silly miles per gallon where the test only uses a litre of fuel not a gallon and starts with fully charged battery and ends with fully discharged battery so we get distance ravelled with petrol plus distance travelled by battery all times 5 as 5 litres in a gallon to give miles per gallon.

We can see how ridiculous the car figures are, but few will ever bother to measure what a washing machine uses.

Also there is the fuel cost. In my brother-in-laws house there are solar panels, and a wood burner plus an electric back-up should they not store enough heat in two large water storage tanks which take excess heat and re-distribute as required. Domestic water is heated with a heat exchanger from the central heating water and he looked at the idea of using the abundant supply of hot water rather than have to run off water to get system cool enough so he can light a fire. But the cost of converting washing machines, tumble driers to use hot water instead of electric heating means it's just not going to happen.

I tried it with grand children who were very keen on energy saving. I offered them £2 to hang out cloths and bring them in after. Which really was more than it costs to tumble dry the cloths. Sure you can guess the answer. And it's started to rain help me get in the cloths, is answered when I've finished this game.

 

[JohnW2]

The top loader is still very much the norm here - No trying to wash in a tiny puddle of water, as you put it! With up to 40 gallons or so of water for a full fill, I doubt even a relatively long pipe run would make a huge amount of difference.

It certainly wouldn't! However, if we're talking 40 gallons (about 150 litres if you're talking US gallons), then it's probably rather academic to be talking about 'efficiency' at all, no matter how/where all that water is heated

Kind Regards, John

 

[JohnW2]

In larger houses even in the UK we have circulation pumps to insure as soon as we turn on the tap we have hot water.

I inherited such a situation, built by the Victorians, albeit it used convection loops rather than pumps - but I soon got rid of it when I discovered what energy costs it was resulting in! Admittedly, they had made some attempts to mitigate the 'wastage', by routing the loops through airing cupboards etc. ( a lot of it in 2"+ pipes!).

Kind Regards, John

 

[EFLImpudence]

Plus, of course, how long would a washing machine element take to heat forty gallons?

Can it really be forty gallons? That's more than a normal hot water cylinder.

 

[JohnW2]

Plus, of course, how long would a washing machine element take to heat forty gallons?

Potentially quite a long time, if it were a 3kW one - although obviously dependent on what temperature one was heating it to.

Can it really be forty gallons? That's more than a normal hot water cylinder.

It is indeed. Well, a 'normal' UK HW cylinder, at least!

Kind Regards, John

 

[winston1]

Plus, of course, how long would a washing machine element take to heat forty gallons?

Potentially quite a long time, if it were a 3kW one - although obviously dependent on what temperature one was heating it to.

Can it really be forty gallons? That's more than a normal hot water cylinder.

It is indeed. Well, a 'normal' UK HW cylinder, at least!

Kind Regards, John

With US 120v supplies it is unlikely to be 3kW.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

They have plenty of 240V appliances.

 

[winston1]

They have plenty of 240V appliances.

I'm not sure about plenty. On a recent visit I stayed in an apartment in Brooklyn and the only 240v appliance was the hivac which was hard wired. The dish washer was 120v and there were no 240v sockets in the apartment and only one 240v way on the CU.

 

[mattylad]

So back to this extension lead.......

 

[bernardgreen]

It would seem this is going on all the time with tricks played to show a car or any other item for that matter is better than it really is.

I wonder how many routes for measuring miles per gallon start at the top of a mountain and end in the valley below.

 

[bernardgreen]

So back to this extension lead.......

Yes. Last night I saw a cheapo extension lead that was well cooked, it had been supplying a 500 watt heater for only a few hours over the past couple of days. The manufacturers could have advertised it as

"Low insertion force sockets, Specially designed to be easy for people with arthritic hands to push plugs in and pull them out. "

The contacts in the unused sockets exerted very little pressure on the pins of the plug.

 

[ericmark]

May be some non BS1363 items

had been used read more here when PAT testing and doing EICR I remove them and write on the report unauthorised items have been put into the sockets not to BS1363 which may have damaged socket. Only way to be sure is to replace all sockets into which these plastic lumps have be pushed into.

 

[bernardgreen]

May be some non BS1363 items had been used

Not in this case, it was straight out of the wrapper. The person who bought it has been advised to take it back to where it was bought and show the shop keeper how dangerous it was.