"Elmo P. Shagnasty" > wrote in message
...
> In article >,
> "Nancy Young" > wrote:
>
>> I can't really get behind this dishwasher as home heating device
>> unless you live in a one room studio.
>
> The size of the house has nothing to do with it. The fact remains: if
> you need to add heat to the home to make it comfortable for living, then
> the heat from the dishwasher's dry cycle will ultimately be sent into
> the inside of the home itself. That is heat that the furnace does NOT
> have to supply.
>
> In a studio apartment, it may be a significant percentage of the total
> heat needed to raise the inside temperature of the apartment. In a
> large house, it may be a very small percentage of the total heat needed.
> Regardless, it is heat and it will have an effect--in other words, it
> won't go to waste.
>
> However, when you're using the A/C in summer, the added heat load of the
> dry cycle is heat that the A/C must work HARDER at to remove from the
> inside of the house--again, regardless of whether it's a studio
> apartment or a large house.

All absolutely true. That's why as much as possible I refrain from using my
oven during warm months but instead plan to prepare food on my outdoor
grill, and use paper plates when practical, and in fact it's warm climates
that encourage/promote the entire outdoor cooking/eating industry. I save
the heavy indoor cooking for the winter months, when it helps heat the
house. It's really pretty dopey to refrain from occasionally/appropriately
using the heated dry feature of a dishwasher by claiming that wastes energy,
but then regularly light off a big indoor oven, typically on the hottest
summer days, and then just to bake a silly tube of biscuits or a couple
spuds. I realize that folks have all kinds of strange routines they follow
religiously without realizing why, like eating toast for breakfast during
summer but having yogurt during winter, but then don't try to explaining
ones odd behavior by claiming it saves energy/money when it does not. I
have nothing against frugality but I detest dopeyness.