Vego-o-matic, a SpinX will pay for itself almost twice as fast if your electricity rates are going up like that. $450 is a one-time cost; you'll get a big smile on your face every month after that when you see the electricity bill is lower than it would have been otherwise (look at your total KWH consumed, compare to the previous month, or the same month the previous year).
The Pakistani units sold at The Laundry Alternative might have improved since the first batch that seemed to be prone to self-destruct mode. They also have a little countertop unit for $69.95 that'll hold one or two articles at a time if you don't mind taking that much longer to get through the whole load.
Or you could be a guinea-pig for all of us here and buy a UK unit, and one of those plug-in voltage converters at Radio Snack (get one that's rated high enough in terms of power output), and see how it goes. Note the voltage converters don't deal with the powerline frequency, so an English machine on USA power will run about 20% faster, so load it carefully.
With all the electricity rate increases coming ahead, and more to come after that as long as oil prices keep going up and we haven't built enough nukes & wind to cover the gap, the SpinX company would be a good one to invest in. They're not publicly traded but it might be possible to purchase shares directly from the company. I should look into this...
Or if anyone asks about the cement truck in the driveway, you can say "Yeah I saw that too. I wondered what it was doing in the neighborhood..."
