Until now I've been too frightened to even consider trying to run the washing machine without the generator. All that water-churning and spinning must, I assumed, take loads of power: too much perhaps for our little alternative system. As a consequence, doing the washing is a noisy business with the washing machine and generator thundering away together; and not very green or cheap at all as it uses up half a tank of petrol (and, incidentally, about 80 litres of water).
What I do know about washing machines though is that heating up the water takes the most energy out of of the whole cycle. As I needed to wash some sheets and I didn't want to wash them in cold water, I decided to experiment.
I ran the first half of the wash as usual from the generator. This meant that the water was heated up to 40 degrees by petrol power. Then I switched off the genny (oh, the silence!), crossed my fingers and plugged into the other system which was being powered up nicely by the midday sun.
With my hand hovering over the washing machine's off switch in case anything suddenly went horribly wrong, I watched how much energy it was using. It turned out that the sun could manage perfectly well - the machine's needs were relatively modest. (For anyone interested, it took about 15 amps to turn the drum around each time during the rinse cycle, and spinning took about 29 amps.)
A success!
Next step: to reduce the machine's water and energy consumption by getting the ecoballs out of the box and cutting out a few of the three or four rinses that it seems to think that it needs.
Next step after that: to supply water to the washing machine which has already been warmed by the sun (or at least gas until we get a solar water system).
Next step after that: to supply water to the washing machine which has already been warmed by the sun (or at least gas until we get a solar water system).
• Spotted today - a lovely big hairy bumblebee and - I think - a hummingbird hawk moth.
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