Energy Saving Tips - This Month, How to Save Energy (and Money) in the Kitchen

We’ve borrowed these tips from energy comparison & switching specialists USwitch, who also have tips for other areas of your home on their website at https://www.uswitch.com/energy-efficiency/free-energy-saving-tips

Energy saving tips for the kitchen
The kitchen is where the most energy is used on a regular basis, which means there’s a whole host of measures you can take to limit the amount of energy you use when cooking which saves you money and helps reduce your carbon footprint.

1. The microwave is generally the most efficient way to heat up and cook food - it’s quicker because it reaches higher temperatures, and its smaller size (as opposed to the oven) means its heat is more directly focused on the food.


2. Rather than boiling water directly on the hob, it’s quicker and more energy-efficient to use the kettle to boil water and transfer it to a pan on the hob for steaming and boiling.


3. On that note, if you’re using water to boil anything in a pan, make sure that you only use as much water as you need to cover the food you’re cooking - there’s no point using energy to boil water you don’t actually need.


4. If you're using the kettle to boil water, avoid overfilling it - this could save £11 a year on your electricity bills.


5. Slow cookers are also an energy-efficient cooking appliance, as well as being ideal for those who like to prep their food while they’re out or getting on with other things - they use little more energy than a traditional light bulb, making them a great, energy-efficient addition to any kitchen.


6. If you’re using the oven, cook as much as possible in one go to make sure maximum space and heat is being used. If you make lunches to have at work, it makes sense to do them all at once anyway, so using the oven this way is ideal.


7. Keep the oven door closed while you're cooking. Each time you open the door, the oven loses up to 25 degrees of heat and subsequently requires more energy to get back up to temperature. If you ensure you keep the glass in the oven door clean so you can look in, you won’t have to open it to see whether your food is done or not.


8. If you’re planning on using frozen food, defrost it ahead of time in the fridge or on the worktop to both halve the cooking time and avoid using the energy of the microwave to defrost more quickly.


9. On the subject of defrosting, it’s important to remember to defrost your fridge freezer regularly so it doesn’t use more energy than necessary.


10. Pay attention to how long your oven takes to pre-heat, so you're ready to start cooking as soon as it's up to the correct temperature.


11. Clean behind your fridge and freezer to help keep them cool and working as efficiently as possible.


12. Reduce potato cooking time by boiling them in a saucepan or in the microwave before roasting them in the oven.


13. Use glass or ceramic dishes instead of metal dishes and trays in the oven. Glass and ceramic materials retain heat better than metal, making them the most efficient to use in the oven. If you’re confident deviating from recipes, you can even set the heat lower than needed because of the increased efficiency of these dishes.


14. Inserting stainless steel skewers into things like baked potatoes and joints of meat can help to speed up their cooking time, according to some people. This is because the heat is more quickly and evenly conducted throughout the food while it’s cooking.


15. If you’re cooking large pieces of food like a joint of meat, it can be worth cutting it into smaller pieces so it will cook more quickly.


16. Invest in a fan-assisted or convection oven that uses fans to circulate heat around the food as it cooks. This is more energy-efficient because it means you don’t need to turn the heat up as high as you’d need to in a normal oven.


17. Conversely, if you’re using an electric oven, turn it off ten minutes before the food has finished cooking. The temperature inside the oven will stay the same so the food will still cook through to completion without the oven needing to use any energy.


18. Always match the size of your pan to the amount of food you’re cooking to ensure that you use less energy in heating a bigger surface area than you need to.


19. Similarly, when you’ve selected your pan, make sure you use the right size hob for it. More flame than you need will waste energy and a pan that’s too big will take longer to get to the right temperature.


20. Sometimes a recipe may recommend that you don’t put lids on pans but, if it doesn’t, you should use lids in order to keep the heat in.


21. If you use a double steamer to cook vegetables, you can then layer the vegetables on top of each other while still only using one ring.


22. Remember to turn down the level of the ring or burner once you’ve reached the right cooking temperature - dishes usually just need to simmer.


23. It can be worth using a pressure cooker to cook beans, meats or stews. The pressure cooker’s lid traps steam, so the food cooks more quickly and efficiently than it would in a pan.


24. If you have an electric hob, use flat-bottomed pans - the fuller contact the pan has with the ring, the more evenly the heat will spread through it.


25. Think about your pan material - copper-bottomed pans heat up quicker than stainless steel and cast-iron pans retain heat more efficiently.


26. Make sure you clean heating rings regularly - any food that sticks to the ring will absorb heat, making it less efficient.


27. Keep your fridge full - it will use less energy when it’s well stocked. However, you should still buy only what you’re likely to use rather than spending money on food you’re not going to eat. Fill up the remaining space by stacking the fridge shelves with bowls of water.


28. Repair refrigerator door seals to ensure warm air isn’t getting into the fridge. If it is, the fridge will need to work harder and use more electricity to keep the interior cold.


29. If you use a dishwasher, only start it when it’s full. A half load uses the same amount of electricity and hot water as a full load, so waiting until it’s full means you’ll do fewer washes and save more energy. Be careful not to overload it, though, because the machine won’t be able to do the wash properly.


30. If you can reduce running the dishwasher by one run each week, you could save £14 per year. And if you wash up by hand, make sure you use a washing up bowl rather than wasting water as it’s running from the tap.

Written by:
Councillor Tricia Austin, Central Harbour Ward