Dishwasher Off-Grid 2024
- Thread starter DrZ123
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yodamota
Solar Enthusiast
the old hand machine. wash tub.
DIYrich
Solar Wizard
I'm guessing the hot water is the most energy usage.
A-yup. By the time you have "pre-washed" the dishes such that you don't still have food bits stuck on the finished product from a DW, ya might as well have finished the job in the sink.
Most DW's now include an in-line heating element to additionally heat the water. Ouch.
OffGridForGood
Catch, make or grow everything you can.
We find the DW method uses less water, but more energy.
2TrevorJ
Bend the Joules
I'm not sure if it's particularly good or bad but we have the current model 39 dBA Samsung unit and it uses 0.8-1.2 kWh per (full 2H 16M) cycle. Just a data point.
ScrotpusGobbleBottom
Corn Pop was a bad dude.
Funny you should say this, I just ran an energy audit on mine yesterday, Got almost the same numbers ~1kWh and 2H 10M. What are the chances of this? lol
Spartan
New Member
We put in a Bosch. Chose one that was Energy Star rated. It also has a power on-off button so you can 100% cut power to it when not in use so no "phantom loads" that are constantly on, draining power even when not in use. We almost always run the standard 2 hour run instead of the power saving, 1 hour short cycle even in the winter when sunshine can be in short supply.
Our Bosch dishwasher uses very little power most of the time that it is running. It's only when it's heating up the wash water and intermittently during the drying cycle that it puts a load on our system but it's easily handled.
For the couple winter months when you are trying to conserve power, try to time your dishwashing run for when the sun is shining as it takes less power to run directly from the solar panels than to charge the batteries and then run the device from battery power alone. Even on a cloudy day, running our Bosch dishwasher does not seem to put much of a dent in our off-grid system capacity.
We designed our house and its energy consuming systems along the concept that it's most cost effective to use less power than it is to build a system with a larger battery bank or more solar panels. We have everything a grid connected house has except that all of our energy using devices were selected based on their efficient use of power. I found that looking for Energy Star rated devices usually put me onto the most efficient devices available. You can usually find detailed energy consumption information online as you research products though sometimes, you have to dig for it.
Good luck.
Our Bosch dishwasher uses very little power most of the time that it is running. It's only when it's heating up the wash water and intermittently during the drying cycle that it puts a load on our system but it's easily handled.
For the couple winter months when you are trying to conserve power, try to time your dishwashing run for when the sun is shining as it takes less power to run directly from the solar panels than to charge the batteries and then run the device from battery power alone. Even on a cloudy day, running our Bosch dishwasher does not seem to put much of a dent in our off-grid system capacity.
We designed our house and its energy consuming systems along the concept that it's most cost effective to use less power than it is to build a system with a larger battery bank or more solar panels. We have everything a grid connected house has except that all of our energy using devices were selected based on their efficient use of power. I found that looking for Energy Star rated devices usually put me onto the most efficient devices available. You can usually find detailed energy consumption information online as you research products though sometimes, you have to dig for it.
Good luck.
Do you know how much energy usage per load?
Our dishwasher is ok, we only run it on opportune days. We feed it from a propane on demand heater which helps a lot. However, part way through the cycle it tends to turn on the heater element and start pulling around 1100 watts! hoping to pull it out and try and disconnect the heating element when i get back. Remember to always shut off the dish drying cycle or shut it down, open door as soon as its done.
HighDesertOffgrid
Solar Addict
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The ones I've seen are similar to the resistive elements in ovens. Many dishwashers have economy settings to disable them and heated drying, but one could always access the physical connection if that option isn't available.
efficientPV
Solar Addict
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Just disconnect the heater. I run a dishwasher and only have a car battery for the house. I have a GE Profile dishwasher and it only takes 100WH for a full cycle. The leads that went to the heater now go to a relay. That feeds power from array DC which is only 60V. Dishwashers are poorly insulated and added extra to the cabinet so it takes less heating. My water heater is set to 60C and we wait till it gets to temp and it is fed with hot water. In the drying cycle the heater normally operates at about 50% on time. I use a timer so power remains on 100%. The result is next to nothing battery drain. The heater only works on excess power and that can be from 0 to 350W. This has worked fine for years on a very minimal solar system.
Mine is connected to the hot water line. In winter, my hot water is generated with the wood boiler, so electricity use by the dishwasher is minimal.
Bluedog225
Texas
My Bosch will not, under any known circumstances, skip the dry cycle. I can turn it off, open it, cut power, nothing works. When restarted it always goes through the dry cycle. Sucks energy. Sucks.
The most efficient is not to have dishes to wash. I can get away with this by being a old solitary individual and using paper plates and plastic cups. Pots and pans just get wash/rinsed at the sink. Every month or so I do build up enough things I want to run through the dishwasher and I simply do it on days of plentiful PV production.
If you are really frugal you can get several days use out of the same paper plate. It depends on what the last thing you used it for.
If you are really frugal you can get several days use out of the same paper plate. It depends on what the last thing you used it for.
HighDesertOffgrid
Solar Addict
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I let the dog do the hard part. A little rinse and back in the cupboard.
Here soap, here water!I let the dog do the hard part. A little rinse and back in the cupboard.
OffGridInTheCity
Solar Wizard
Govt is in the process of mandating the most efficient dishwasher (and other appliances)... so just wait a bit. No need to make effort to figure it out for yourself 
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I already have it. It uses electricity like crazy but it does the dishes in1/3rd the time and the dishes are always clean. Now if only they still made the filters for it.Govt is in the process of mandating the most efficient dishwasher (and other appliances)... so just wait a bit. No need to make effort to figure it out for yourself
Spartan
New Member
That I don't know. I don't have access to where the dishwasher is plugged in to run it trough a kill-o-watt meter. It might even be direct wired; I wasn't there the day it was installed during construction. But I do know from passing by the MATE3s control screen on my Outback system, most of the time the dishwasher is running, it only pulls serious power when it is bringing the water up to temperature or intermittently during the dry cycle. Most of the time it's running, there's little power above background going to the washer.
The water line to the dishwasher comes from the hot side of the household water supply so the dishwasher only needs to heat it up a little more to get it to proper wash-temperature. The power needed for drying only draws intermittently so even that power load is not what you think it might be.
I have an 8,000 watt inverter, 840 amp hour lead acid battery and 4200 watt solar array. Running an energy efficient dishwasher is not an issue unless I'm three days into very thick cloud cover and trying to make it to the next sunny day without reliance on the backup generator. At that point, it's just a personal decision as to wait to run the dishwasher another day or let the backup-generator kick on once the dishwasher pulls battery power down to that point.
I know everybody's situation is different but if you're having trouble running an efficient dishwasher off-grid, you probably have a system design issue, not a dishwasher issue. Properly sized, your off-grid system should be able to handle such things as laundry, dishwashers and such.
Spartan
New Member
Just for you - here's the Bosch model I installed 5 years ago; probably a different model # for what's available now but it's a place to start:
Bosch
SHSM63W52N/10
FD971200191
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