White goods power consumtion

[cryptogram]

Having recently installed solar panels I'm now searching for the power cons umption of various equipment in the house and am struggling. For example, o ur kettle says it's 3 kilowatt. Fair enough, but I cannot find the power co nsumption of our Bosch dishwasher. It seems these days that you get told an energy rating so you can compare one machine with another, but that's not the same thing. To know that it consumes 2 kwh to do a wash is not the same thing as knowing that it consumes 2 kw (or whatever) while actually runnin g. One needs to know how much it consumes while running to know whether the solar panels, whose spot generation is known and varies a lot during most days, will power the machine for free or whether we've got to wait a bit fo r the sun to come out more. Anyone know where proper info can be got? I haven't been able to get it fro m the manufacturers' websites.

[Andy Champ]

consumption of various equipment in the house and am struggling. For example, our kettle says it's 3 kilowatt. Fair enough, but I cannot find the power consumption of our Bosch dishwasher. It seems these days that you get told an energy rating so you can compare one machine with another, but that's not the same thing. To know that it consumes 2 kwh to do a wash is not the same thing as knowing that it consumes 2 kw (or whatever) while actually running. One needs to know how much it consumes while running to know whether the solar panels, whose spot generation is known and varies a lot during most days, will power the machine for free or whether we've got to wait a bit for the sun to come out more.

the manufacturers' websites.

Ah, that's the problem with solar panels, they are unpredictable. Someone somewhere has to keep their coal-fired station hot all the time in case the sun goes in and you start using the mains. There's doubt as to whether these things save any carbon at all for just that reason.

That aside, near the back of the book for our new Bosch dishwasher states the power requirements - 220-230 volts, 2.0-2.4kW (presumably the higher power being for the higher voltage, as this is a resistive element heater). It's page 25 in case you have the same book :)

That will be peak usage, while it's heating the water; it will be _much_ lower during the rest of the cycle.

Andy

[Woody]

There is usually a label with model/serial number and power consumption on the internal edge of the door.