How to Save Energy in a Kitchen

Some of the biggest energy hogs in your home are in your kitchen. Modifying some of your current cooking habits and getting into conservation mode can help you prepare food more efficiently. That's good for your wallet and the environment.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Microwave
• Pressure cooker
• Toaster oven

1. Use your microwave. Microwaves use almost 50% less energy than ovens. If you haven't gotten into the habit of relying on your microwave to cook and defrost foods, you're missing an opportunity to save on energy. Read the manual that came with your microwave for instructions on how to perform simple cooking tasks. Once you become familiar with a few basic principles, you'll appreciate the fact that microwaves cook food fast and produce less heat in your kitchen.

2. Invest in a pressure cooker. Pressure cookers can cook food more efficiently than even microwave ovens. They also have the advantage of retaining most of the natural juices and many of the vitamins in the foods you prepare. Modern pressure cookers have safety features that make them much safer to use than the pressure cookers of the past.

3. Evaluate your cooking tasks. For smaller jobs, use a toaster oven. Toaster ovens heat up faster and use less energy than conventional ovens. For small jobs these ovens are a more efficient and economical choice.

4. Clean your stovetop to keep it running efficiently. If you have burners with reflector dishes, keep them clean.

5. Check your oven for tears or cracks in door seals. These gaps will allow heat to escape. Repair or replace any faulty seals promptly.

6. Clean your oven. Heat is distributed throughout a clean oven more efficiently than in a dirty one.

7. Calibrate your oven using with an inexpensive oven thermometer to determine the proper temperature setting. Cooking at the right temperature will save you money.

8. Conserve hot water, which is expensive to heat, by doling it out carefully. Use cold or warm water when you can.

9. Clean your refrigerator's condenser coils every couple of months. Dirty condenser coils make your refrigerator work harder. This wastes energy and makes your kitchen hotter than it has to be.

10. Close the refrigerator door promptly. Instead of standing in front of the open refrigerator deciding what you want to remove, decide beforehand what you will be removing, and try to group trips.

11. Organize your cooking tasks to take advantage of layered trays that will allow you to microwave things together, or group items in the oven at the same time. Bake French fries and fish fillets in the oven in a single batch. Steam rice and asparagus in the microwave together.

12. Replace the light bulbs in your kitchen with energy efficient fluorescent bulbs.

Tips & Warnings

• Many prepackaged mixes have alternate instructions for preparing food in the microwave instead of the oven or stovetop. Take advantage of these directions to make full use of your microwave.