Turn off the Oven Early
There is no need to blast your stove on high the entire time your pizza is in there. You can cook the food in the oven's residual heat. Turn off your oven about ten minutes early to save energy.
Bake Several Dishes at Once
Let's say you have three dishes that need baked. Baking them all at once is a great way to conserve energy. You can cook three dishes for the electrical or gas price of one.
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
I always turn the AC off when ever I use the oven or dryer. I notice when I have it on while using these appliances, my AC whilst on Auto, goes off and on more often then it does while the dryer or oven is off. Or maybe I'm just nuts...luc
I agree. The stove has a heating effect on most of my house, which is why summer BBQ's are so important! There is a lot to cooking seasonally and heavy, warming foods in the winter don't sit well with your stomach or your electric bill in the summer. Another reason why fresh fruit desserts are so much better in the summer.
Someone who admittedly does not cook gives this kind of advice? I would never, ever turn my oven or stove off early, but I do leave my stove open after I have turned it off to heat up the kitchen (in the winter). Also if you keep the kitchen fan OFF the heat will go into the kitchen instead of up the fan, much better and can heat up parts of your house depending on your floor plan. If restaurants found an efficient way of moving the heat from the kitchen to the dinning room they would save a whole bunch of money!
We do have copper saute pans and use them because of how hot they get, but not to save money, the food tastes better and the heat, again, goes into the kitchen.
Our gas/electric bills are 1/2 my MIL's who has a house half our size, it has to do with turning off lights, with having good insulation and other factors.
We save all our cooked bones and make stocks (hours with the gas stove on), we save all our cooking fat for re-use or to feed the birds. This is a no - throw away household and we are saving more green house gasses by re-using and making our own pizza dough than buying at TJ's and turning off the oven 10 minutes before it is done.
Since I've switched top the glass stove top (I prefer the coil models or gas ). I've found you can easily turn the burner off early, as the stove top retains the heat much longer than a coil model. Making eggs for example, as soon as one side is set I turn the burner off then flip.
As for ovens, self cleaning models (at least in the past) are more heavily insulated than standard ovens. Convection ovens also cook more quickly and evenly than standard models.
Stacking food to cook can also work well. While boiling potatoes to mash, I often put a metal colander over the top of the pot with a lid, to steam a vegetables while cooking the potatoes. This makes nicely steamed vegetables without waterlogged overcooked soggy results, with additional vitamin loss, all while using one burner instead of two.
Missed the biggest one....
stop cooking beef, chicken, pig, and non-sustainable fish.
Not true. The point of the article is to green your range. It takes more energy to bake a potato or cook a pot of beans than to cook any of those foods.
I wonder why no one has brought up the fact that a gas range is more efficient that electric because gas is directly burned in a gas range, but is gas is used to make electricity, about half (depending on the power plant) of the heat from natural gas goes up the stack of the power station. So an electric range would use twice as much gas as a gas range. But if you cannot get gas, and you live near a dam or a nuclear power station, I guess electric range is the better choice.
As a gas oven has no flue pipe thus the heat generated is 100% efficient, in the winter the efficiency is probably higher than your gas furnace. So in the winter this tip does not actually save you any money.
The stove only heats your kitchen, with all the other appliances it's the last place that needs to be heated. In most cases the heat from your stove will not warm up the parts of your house that really need it.
Great ideas for saving wear and tear on yourself too...
Cook a big platter of lasagna to serve for a couple days...
Less clean up too----
Yep, turn off the oven early, and in winter months, leave the door open to heat the room after you've taken the food out. Well, I guess if you have kids who might get burned, forget that - but our kids have flown the coop, so we can do it.
This sounds like an article for college students. Nonetheless, if you're eating 3-5 frozen pizzas a week, why do you even have a stove. Get rid of it. You're wasting energy.
Three dishes to bake all at once? Who does that and how often, besides holidays and special occasions? Unless you have convection, you'll waste a lot of the oven's heat by continually opening the door to move the dishes around. So this, does not in fact, result in cooking three dishes for the price of one.
This article does not address self-cleaning ovens. I guarantee you that the range in the photo is a self-cleaning oven. You can save E by shortening the cleaning cycle.
I do not trust the "tip" about turning the oven off 10 minutes before end time. For a cheap frozen pizza I'm willing to try it. But I will not forsake quality for 10 minutes of stove time. I do, however, leave the oven door open after shutting off the oven. Nice in the dead of winter.
Perhaps you are unaware of the concept of food planning. Those of us with busy schedules tend to cook multiple things at once, to be consumed over time. It minimizes time as well as energy.
Very much energy is wasted as your oven heats and cools off, so it is MUCH better to cook multiple items in one heating of the stove.
Why don't you get a proper oven thermometer, and you can verify for yourself whether or not the techniques work. Speculation is pointless without actual data.
You would be dead wrong. I plan menus, I do not plan food. I cook a fresh meal every evening and on weekends I prepare 2-3 fresh meals a day. I'm all about fresh, fresh, fresh! Small amounts, light cooking, few leftovers. None of that bulk stuff for me.
Go ahead and cook all the multiple food items in your oven that your heart desires. Heat them up and eat them again and reheat them and eat them again and again and again...
I had the gas guy turn off the the automatic pilots for the cook top and I use matches to start the cooking burner. (the old fashioned way) This saves a lot each month on gas and money.
This is a great idea if you don't want to pop for a new stove with the fancy spark lighters. I also don't like the idea of having those little flames heating up my kitchen in the hot summer.
Induction ovens save up to 90% in energy usage. Too bad they are not more affordable.
Well for one thing go back to a 4 burner range. I dunno but growin up 4 burners were quite adequate, why this sudden need for 5 and 6 burner 'restaurant' ranges, jeez if they want that go eat at a restaurant.
Those extra burners don't use any gas if you don't turn them on.
I bet your mom would have liked to have a 6-burner stove on Thanksgiving.
She hardly used both ovens at the same time.
Loading comments…
planetgreen.discovery.com | January 12, 2009 08:51 AM