For most of us, our favorite room in the house is the kitchen, but it can also be the biggest drain on energy! Look over the following ways you can quickly, and for the most part very cheaply, turn your kitchen into a lean green machine.
1. A cleaner stove top and oven. If you’ve got any blackened material sitting around in the oven, or stuck to the stove top, you are wasting valuable energy! These materials will absorb heat, which is taken away from your cooking time. While you are trying to boil that corn on the cob or bake that birthday cake, the dirty surfaces are draining resources. Put the time and effort into spiffing up your stove, inside and out, and increase its efficiency in the process. It will save you a lot of time and money in the long run.
2. Invest in a range hood. These can be purchased for any make or model stove, some very cheaply, but the energy they recoup for you will be well worth it. A range hood redirects all the hot air generated from cooking and sucks it right out of your kitchen. Otherwise, that heat will permeate your house and either kick-on your central air or prompt you to manually make the adjustment to compensate for the burst of warmth.
3. Change all the light bulbs in your kitchen. Fluorescent bulbs are significantly more efficient than incandescent bulbs and can last as much as ten times longer! The greater efficiency of CFL’s will offer you immediate savings on your electric bill and over the lifetime of the bulb. Additionally, these bulbs will reduce your carbon footprint and help the environment, as well as being easier on your eyes.
4. Use the fridge to defrost. Leaving any frozen food in the refrigerator to thaw out is simple and effortless, so long as you remember to do it in time! This will prevent excessive use of the microwave, saving money and energy and some swear that this is a much healthier method of defrosting meats. A fully thawed item will also require much less time in your oven or on your stove top, increasing the appeal of this tip all the more.
5. Multi-task! Using your oven for just a cake is a very inefficient use of your resources and a wastes time and money. Plan ahead and use all the space on your oven racks. Not only will this cut down on the energy usage, it enables you to get more done way ahead of time. Bake for the week by putting morning muffins on one rack, dessert minded cupcakes on another and even roasting a small side dish simultaneously. The more space you use at once, the more you save yourself and spare the environment. Consider freezing portions of baked food for later use, if your family is small sized or you live alone.
Our love of cooking and eating keeps us active in the kitchen, and if we learn to adopt newer and greener ways of doing things, we can do ourselves and the environment some huge favors. Save time, money and valuable resources by adopting the tips from this article into your kitchen today.
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