Potentials and Impacts of Low Temperature Electric Household Dishwashing

Abstract

To further reduce energy consumption of dishwashing programmes and still obtain satisfying cleaning results, water temperatures in the programme steps are decreased and running times are prolonged. To which extent the cleaning factor duration is able to compensate for temperature has been insufficiently researched until now. This study quantifies the effects of a pre-rinse step, of the duration and water temperatures in different dishwashing programme steps on the cleaning performance and energy consumption in mathematical models. Using those models it is shown that even a (cold) pre-rinse step increases the cleaning performance and that energy consumption is reduced by 25–28% and the cleaning performance decreases, especially on heavily soiled load items and of fatty soilings on plastic surfaces, if the water temperature in the cleaning step is lowered to 30°C.