These 10 tips are worth their weight in gold, especially with energy bills being what they are! And they are so brilliantly simple that you’ll find them easy to incorporate without feeling put-upon or strained in any way.
Find out the ten simple cooking tips that will save you some energy in the kitchen, right here:
1. Cover pans while cooking to prevent heat loss.
2. Make sure your pan covers the coil of your range. If you can see coil peeping out from the sides of your pan, you are losing energy and you need a bigger pan!
3. Try one-pot cooking. Stews, soups, and other great peasant meals only take one burner to cook and they are so nourishing and satisfying!
4. Just before your food is cooked completely, turn off the oven or burner and allow the heat in the pot or pan to continue the cooking process for you.
5. The less liquid and fat you use, the quicker the cooking time.
6. Always make more food than you plan to use and freeze it for your own “fast food.”
7. Leftovers take less energy to reheat on top of the stove rather than in the oven.
8. Most of us eat a lot of pasta. Make extra, toss with olive oil, and keep in the fridge so you don’t have to heat an entire pot of water to the boiling point every time you want some.
9. If you have one, use a pressure cooker. It really saves on energy.
10. Try using a solar box cooker.
How much do various baking methods cost? (oven-style cooking)
As the table shows, the difference between most methods is negligible.
| Temperature (degrees F) |
Time | Energy Used | Cost | |
| Electric oven | 350 | 1 hr. | 2.0 kWh | $0.24 |
| Gas oven, electric ignition | 350 | 1 hr. | 0.112 therm +0.35 kWh |
$0.21 |
| Gas oven, pilot | 350 | 1 hr. | 0.112 therm | $0.16 |
| Electric oven, convection | 325 | 45 min. | 1.39 kWh | $0.17 |
| Toaster oven | 350 | 1 hr. | 0.33 kWh | $0.04 |
| Crockpot | 200 | 7 hours | 0.70 kWh | $0.08 |
| Microwave oven | High | 15 minutes | 0.36 kWh | $0.04 |
From Citizens Campaign for the Environment, and Home Energy 1993 and 2001. Toaster oven is by my own measurement.
Assumes $0.12/kWh for electricity and $1.47/therm for gas
I suspect that the figure for electric ovens might be too high. I will measure the actual use of an oven some time and report it here.
Note from the second row in the table that gas ovens use electricity! Electric ignition ovens run a 350-watt glow bar to keep the gas flame going.
Note that for someone baking three hours a week, the cheapest baking method saves only $2.61/mo. compared to the most expensive method. This underscores my point that focusing on cooking methods is not the way to save electricity, and you should look at heating, cooling, lighting, and laundry instead.
www.michaelbluejay.com
Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/save-kitchen-energy-10-cooking-tips.html##ixzz10sAbq9HL
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One more exciting piece of writing coming from your blog
When will it stop….preferably never
Hmmmm that’s great.