Sorry, not sure what I was thinking when I said 40 gallons before. Actually, I probably had in mind the total amount of water likely to be used for a full wash & rinse cycle. A single fill of the tub to the top for a full load would be more like 20 (U.S.) gallons - Still enough not to worry too much about the initial cold draw while the hot makes its way through the pipe anyway, unless it's on an exceptionally long run.Plus, of course, how long would a washing machine element take to heat forty gallons?
Can it really be forty gallons? That's more than a normal hot water cylinder.
And that's a big consideration for many people, surely? Arguments can be made about overall efficiency of electric heating within the machine versus gas heating outside it (and that's without even getting into issues of efficiency of the electric heating at the point of use compared with at the generating station), but most people are more concerned with the economics of the situation.JohnD said:Energy cost by gas is so much lower that it is still economically viable.
In our house we have a 40-gallon (U.S.) water heater powered by natural gas which is sitting there full of hot water just a few feet away from the washer. Given the cost of energy from gas versus the cost of electricity, it would make no economic sense to fill the washer with cold water and heat it electrically instead of drawing from the existing gas-heated supply of hot water (our base rate is about $1.10 per therm for gas compared with 15.3 cents per kw-hr. for electricity).