Even if you don't own a dishwasher continue reading because even if you hand wash dishes energy is needed to heat the water that you use. Washing dishes uses about as much energy as a dryer, about 1,000 kilowatt hours.

Things to keep in mind about dish washers and hand-washing dishes:

• Dish washers use the same amount of energy whether they are half full or completely full.
• If you wash your dishes in two sinks, one for washing and one for rinsing, you will use about half as much energy as running the dish washer.
• Keep in mind not to let the water run while hand washing dishes. In just 7 minutes you will have used 17.5 gallons of water. This is more than even the most inefficient dish washers (15 gallons).
• 80% of the energy used by your dish washer is used to heat the water up to 140 degrees

There are easy ways to reduce the amount of water and energy used to clean your dishes and save you money.

• Don't pre-rinse your dishes. Modern detergents and dish washers are built to handle the dirtiest of dishes. If you have to clean pieces of food off of your dishes, scrape it off instead of rinsing. For pots with stuck-on food, let sit overnight with dish soap before placing in the dish washer.
• Always run the dish washer with a full load.
• If your dish washer has an energy saving or "light wash" feature, use it. It will use less water and will air dry the dishes as opposed to using heat.
• Use the air dry feature to reduce the amount of energy used to dry your dishes.
• Avoid the "rinse hold" feature as this uses 3 to 7 gallons of water each time you use it.
• Upgrading to a newer, more energy-efficient dish washer can save you up to $44 dollars a year in energy costs.