Sustainable Tips To Make Your Kitchen Energy Efficient
Whether you use your kitchen more often at night or day, the truth is, you are using a lot of energy irrespective of your cooking habits. With everyone talking about energy efficiency, don’t you think it is high time you thought about making your kitchen more energy efficient?
If you are considering reducing your utility bills and leaving a greener lifestyle, you should start with the kitchen. Here are simple ways to reduce energy consumption in your kitchen, and sustainably ‘make your kitchen energy efficient‘.
Simple Tips To Make Your Kitchen Energy Efficient
Change the Following
Achieving energy efficiency in the kitchen is all about making simple switches in your home. Some of such switches include:
- Using energy-efficient bulbs: nowadays and in most households, the kitchen is the heart of the home. Kitchen dining rooms and open plan kitchen living spaces are hugely popular. And because we are spending most of our time in the kitchen, it also means that kitchen lights are on most of the time. Switching to energy-efficient light bulbs and Smiths City appliances can help you reduce your consumption of energy. LED lighting might be a little most expensive than regular bulbs but they emit more light, use up to 75% less energy and last longer than regular incandescent bulbs, so you’re making more savings and protecting the environment.
- Opt for ceramic or glass dishes: the kind of dishes you use when baking determine the level of energy consumed in the kitchen. Ceramic and glass dishes heat up and cook fast, reducing the energy needed to cook a given meal significantly.
Make Your Kitchen Energy Efficient by …
Avoiding the Following Bad Habits
- Avoid using oversized burners on cooktops or hobs: Cooking food in a small pan on a large burner is not energy efficient; a lot of the energy you will produce will go to waste. When cooking, match your pot or pan with the size of burner on your cooktop or hob, small pot, small burner. If you’re in the market for a new cooktop or hob, consider an induction cooktop – they can be up to 90% efficient, compared with gas at approximately 50%.
- Close the oven door: it is advisable to avoid cooking with the oven door open. Opening the door causes the temperature to decrease significantly. Use a timer to alert you when your food is ready to be removed from the oven.
- Leaving unused appliances plugged in: can you count the number of times you have left your coffee maker or iron box plugged? Leaving kitchen electronics and appliances plugged in consumes a lot of power, not alone cause an accident. Every time you use a kitchen gadget, make sure to unplug it from the socket.
Help Make Your Kitchen Energy Efficient by …
Investing in the Following Projects
- Use low-flow fixtures and faucets: if you change the faucets to low flow models, you will be on the right track towards reducing your energy bills. Such models are affordable to buy, easy to install and will reduce your water usage by about 60%.
- Invest in regular maintenance services: kitchen surprises can be very common, especially if you don’t check or maintain your appliances. Perhaps, you have had to stop in the middle of cooking because a burner on your hob isn’t functioning, or you couldn’t wash your utensils because your dishwasher is missing a critical component. Please don’t wait for such inconveniences, do regular checks and get genuine replacement parts for all your appliances as this also makes them more energy efficient.
Maintaining a highly energy-efficient kitchen can be involving. However, an excellent way to start your sustainable journey to ‘Make Your Kitchen Energy Efficient’ is by focusing on your daily activities which in return will help you determine what aspects contribute to high energy consumption.
Regularly monitoring and maintaining your appliances along with the electric and water they use can and will help you reduce the amount of energy consumed in your kitchen, thus making it more energy-efficient.
Photos by Rachel Claire
Further reading: 20 Simple Life Changes to Help You with Sustainable Living
PIN: Simple Tips To Make Your Kitchen Energy Efficient
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