Energy and water savings potential in automatic laundry washing processes

It is expected that energy consumption and usage of water for automatic laundry washing will increase globally in the next decades. Besides the technical development of washing machines, optimized consumer behavior is considered to be an effective measure in terms of saving resources for washing laundry. This work investigates the energy and water saving potential of load increase and temperature reduction in automatic laundry washing processes. The calculations are based on the A.I.S.E.—Laundry and Cleaning Habits study, providing reliable data on consumer behavior with laundry washing in 23 European countries. The results show that savings of up to 50 % in energy and water consumption are possible. In total, savings of more than 12 TWh of electricity and about 870 million m³ of water could be achieved every year by increasing the water and energy efficiency of washing machines and changing the consumer behavior towards better use of the washing machine capacity and the frequent use of low wash temperatures.