politics
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
view the rest of the comments
Got a source to back those claims up?
Are those dollar values normalized to the same year?
You going off data or just vibes, because the only thing here that feels questionable at best is your post.
20+ years in the appliance repair industry.
In the 1970s a residential clothing washer would run for about 40 minutes at the max setting pulling 120 volts and 5 amps. Albeit they used more water to clean the cloths faster.
A modern front load washer now runs for about 2 hours for a regular wash at the same 120 volts and 5 amps. Although we are saving water we recycle anyway....
Got it, so just vibes... Well, since you caught me on a Friday with a light schedule...
Amperage rating is maximum load, not how much it uses the entire cycle. I just so happen to have my washer hooked up to a power meter, and look at that! It doesn't draw the entire load during the entire cycle (which would look like a flat line)!
Runtime is not correlated with energy use. Energy is actually much more closely linked to water usage, since it takes a lot of energy to heat up all that water for a cycle, and all that water weight causes extra load on the internal motors. The additional runtime of modern washing equipment is mostly idle time to allow for additional soaking, etc. and not contributing much energy use. Historical trends show a pretty steady decline in energy use. Here's one study that found a 75+% decrease in energy use per load from the 90's to the early 2010's:
This is interesting, because when partnered with data on tub size, it actually shows that even as loads get larger, energy use has been decreasing over time:
(source is Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers again).
Back to your original comments about refrigerators, I'll just add, going from ~1400 kWh/yr in 1980 to ~400 kWh/yr in 2014 is a 72% decrease in energy use (which is amazing), even while real appliance costs have come down AND volume has gone up.
IDK where you live, but 1000 kWh/yr for me would cost ~$250 ($0.25/kWh). Swapping a 1980s fridge with a modern one would pay for itself in just 2-3 years. Hell, I could even splurge for a fancy fridge and still have a payback faster than investing in the stock market.
These gains, largely driven by regulatory efficiency targets, all benefit the consumer and the electricity grid at large. Being cranky about the fact that "they don't make them like they used to" doesn't change the fact that meaningful improvements have been made over time.