Five Kitchen Energy-Saving Tips
Energy costs are through the roof, and although there may be a glimmer of light on the very, very, very far horizon, we all need to accept that energy saving is the new normal, and we need to maximise our energy usage to keep those bills as low as possible.
The kitchen is, of course, an area where we use a lot of energy, so here are my top five tips that I use to help keep my energy bills as low as possible.
Ditch the oven and invest in or use an existing slow cooker or air fryer. This is not a newsflash to you, I'm sure, it's been well covered in the past, but it works, so I'm mentioning it! The amount of energy used by a slow cooker or air fryer (this uses more, but is fast than a slow cooker, so it evens out), is far less than using a conventional oven, especially for smaller amounts of cooking. If you can fill up the oven completely, then go for it, it makes sense to use it if you use the heat for cooking loads of things, but a quick kiddies nuggets and chips will be far faster and cheaper done in the air fryer.
It's one of the best ways to save energy; use a lid on your saucepans! The amount of energy needed to heat water or food to a high temperature is huge, Stick a lid, plate or even foil over the top to help stop heat from escaping, which will speed up the heating process. You wouldn't open all the windows of your car if you were trying to heat it up right; it's the same principle, close the windows, and the car warms up faster!
Don't preheat your oven! Unless you are cooking pastry, cakes, or anything that must have a hot oven, such as Yorkshire puddings, you don't need to heat the oven up; just add a few extra minutes to the end of the cooking. It's just a waste of energy. If you do have to preheat it, put something in the oven whilst it heats up to make sure you're using that energy for something.
Turn down the gas or electricity burner. If you're using the lid on your saucepans, you won't have to blast the pans with as much energy. Sometimes you need the burners high for browning something off, but generally, you don't need the burners on full blast. Watch your smart meter next time you cook and see the difference between the energy use of a half-on burner and a full-on burner; I promise you'll stop using them full blast after!
Last but by no means least, make sure anything you put in the fridge or freezer is cold. If you put something hot or even warm, it increases the temperature of the fridge/freezer, and your appliance goes into panic mode and ramps up its power usage to try and bring the temperature down, and that can be expensive, especially if a hot item is continuing to heat the appliance up, it just keeps on working hard till its cold again, which could be hours!
I hope these tips help! They've saved me a fair amount of money over the year, and any tips on saving energy have got to be a good thing!