[MN Renovator]

My dishwasher has registered 1kwh three times and 2kwh a different time on my whole house power meter that only counts full kwh before it hops up a number. So over a kwh but under 2kwh. It's a bit of a dishwater amount but that includes all of the electricity from the pump, heater for the hi-temp wash option, and heater for the drying function. Basically the full normal wash with the options on. I'm not sure on the exact water usage because I always forgot and either washed my hands or did something else with the water while it was running but I know it is less than 6 gallons.

With those figures and how many dishes you can get into the dishwasher I can't see how hand washing could possibly use less energy. Pulling up hot water even once a day to do the dishes and rinsing them would be more water than doing a full load of dishes once you've gone through them all. Leaving the counter full of a dishwashers worth of dishes to wash them quick enough while the water is safely hot and rinsing the dishes with a minimal amount of water to make it more efficient would be a serious challenge.

Not to mention the newest Energy Star standard for dishwashers is now(as of January 20, 2012) <4.25 gallons per cycle and <1.372kwh per cycle(<295kwh for 215 cycles).
Federal standard <355kwh and <6.5 gallons.

The average 2.5 gallon aerated head on a sink would probably take 2 minutes worth of rinsing for a full dishwasher load of washing and that 5 gallon is already way over your water usage from the dishwasher. Not to mention the work and time going into doing the washing.