Kitchen appliances can account for up to 15% of your home energy usage and how you choose to cook will impact your energy bill. By following some energy savings tips, you can reduce your bills and here's how. There is more than one way to skin a cat: If you took an inventory of all the appliances you use to cook with the list might look something like this: oven, stovetop, slow cooker or crockpot, microwave and toaster oven. As you can already guess, each of these appliances uses a different amount of energy but what is not so obvious is how much energy each one uses. When you can choose between making a baked potato in the oven or in the microwave, which one uses less energy? How about cooking a soup or stew over the stovetop, or using the slowcooker? Meatloaf in the oven or toaster oven? Just like if you lived in a smaller house, it would take less time to cool the inside of the home with the same sized AC unit than if you lived in a larger house; it takes less energy to heat a smaller space than a larger one. So what would use less energy if you could put that meatloaf in a toaster oven compared to the conventional oven? How much less? You would be cutting your energy use by more than half! (and reducing the temperature in the kitchen as well). Of course, each appliance is “specialized” to cook certain foods but when you can choose, I encourage you to do so. Below is a table showing the energy costs of various cooking methods.  Other energy saving tips in the kitchen include: - When using the electric stovetops it is important to match the pan size to the element size, otherwise you will be wasting almost half the heat produced from the element. - The ideal pan also has a concave bottom to maximize the conduction in the pan. - A pressure cooker will also cook stovetop items faster and with less energy because the built-up pressure drops the boiling point of water thus cooking the food faster. - Cleaning your appliances increases their efficiency. - Avoid peeking into the oven while baking. - Double portions when using the oven to save energy on cooking. - Remove foil on the bottom of ovens to improve air circulation. For more ideas on how to save energy and money while you cook visit APS and SRP’s websites and videos.   Add Comment A fellow efficiency blogger put together a very nice table and description of the Cash for Caulkers aka Home Star, bill which was recently passed in the house last month. I wanted to go a step further for all the desert rats still here in the summer and compare our local utility incentives from APS and SRP to Home Star aka Cash for Caulkers. As of this posting, SRP has not released their version of Home Performance with Energy Star but it is expected to come out by August 2010. As you can see from the table, Home Star will have very significant rebates available sometimes 4 times the amount of our current utility rebates. Home Star is part of the stimulus package that aims to create new jobs in the renewable and energy efficiency sectors. The bill provisions $6 billion for energy-efficient or “green” retrofits. It is expected to fund renovations for 3 million families, create 168,000 new jobs and save consumers $9.2 billion on energy bills over the next 10 years. Enjoy! * (http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/construction/cash-for-caulkers-the-definitive-guide-to-the-home-star-bill-1061110/#ixzz0r4GYp0u6). The author has made reasonable efforts to provide current and accurate information to his readers. The author will not be held liable for any unintentional errors or omissions that may be found. |
