Saving Energy & Dollars in the Kitchen...Part II "Oven & Range"

Saving Energy & Dollars in the Kitchen...Part II "Oven & Range"

Basic maintence of your large kitchen appliances is part of a smart home energy efficiency plan. Spending less money on utility bills doesn’t mean you need to rush out and purchase a whole new suite of Energy Star appliances.

With occasional light maintenance and good habits, you can greatly improve the energy efficiency of your large kitchen appliances.

OVEN/RANGE "Green" cooking all comes down to proper time and space management. By using gas and electric stoves more effectively, you can painlessly save a few dollars a year.

• Cut the power early. As anybody who's ever bumped a burner on an electric stove can attest, those heating elements stay hot long after they've been switched off. Put that residual heat to work by shutting off the burner several minutes before the end of the cook time. The same technique can be applied to the oven. The savings can add up to a couple bucks every month.
• Match the burner to pan. When a small pan is placed on a big burner you can practically see the money disappearing into thin air. By matching the burner to the pan, electricity won't be squandered heating the kitchen rather than the food. The reverse is true, too. A small burner will take considerably longer to heat a large pan than would an appropriately sized burner. For gas stoves, don't let the flames lick the sides of the pot. Follow these tips and watch the utility bills shrink by a few dollars a month.
• Do away with preheating. You can save about $2 a month by not preheating your oven (20 cents per hour to operate electric oven; eliminate 20 30-minute preheats a month). Many cooks agree that the practice is wholly unnecessary for all but a few recipes, namely baking breads and cakes. This approach may add a few minutes to the overall cooking time, but it eliminates all that wait time on the front end.