For an energy-efficient kitchen, should you microwave water instead of heating it on the stove? Is it more economical to use a toaster oven instead of a regular oven? Should you just eat fast food every day instead of trying to figure out how to save energy in the kitchen?
The answer to all but the last question is, of course, yes (unless you want to balloon up like that blueberry girl from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory).
When talking about
energy-efficient kitchen tips, it’s easy to assume appliances are manufactured and operating at peak
Energy Star performance, but when dealing with food, sometimes less really is more. From now on, try matching the method to the meal (incoming logic!). A small portion, if cooked in an oven, requires the same amount of energy to cook as a large portion because an oven is heating the entire space inside, regardless of the size of the food it contains. For small portions,
a more efficient kitchen practice is to use a
toaster oven, slow-cook crock pot, or a microwave to cook the meal. Yes, a microwave nukes your food and makes it taste like a rubber chicken, but it’s also heating a smaller area and heating it faster, which means you’re using much less energy to cook your meal. Efficient kitchen tip #2: A toaster oven has a much smaller cooking space to heat up and is far more efficient than a standard oven. Not to mention you can buy sweet little toaster oven-sized pans to cook your onesies and twosies.
Size is also important when stove-top cooking, and it’s important to match the pot size to the burner size for maximum efficiency. Using the right-sized pot on a burner can save up to $36 annually,
according to Energy Star, because using a six-inch pot on an eight-inch burner wastes up to 40 percent of the burner’s heat. Match the method to the meal and the pot to the burner. Later, we’ll try to match a third something to a third something else to tidy this thing up.
Cleanliness is also important for an energy-efficient kitchen.
Freezer coils should be cleaned regularly to allow them to transfer heat out of the freezer effectively, and stove-top burners should also be white-glove ready to
prevent heat absorption into the charred remains of ramen noodles. Here’s looking at you, Mom.