Handy tips for saving energy when cooking
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Cooker Hob Gas Energy Saver
There are many ways that we can save on energy day to day, but today I want to cover some specific tips that you can use when cooking at home.
If you cook regularly then these tips could help you reduce your energy consumption by 12-80%, massively reduce your carbon footprint and save you money!
- Put a lid on it! Covering your pots and pans when heating will allow them to reach their optimum temperature quicker. This means you will be using less energy and your food will be ready in a shorter time. A bonus if you are in a hurry!
- If you cook with gas try using a Cooker Hob Gas Energy Saver. Most gas hobs burn gas inefficiently. This costs you money and wastes energy. The energy saver is a very cheap way to significantly reduce the gas that you use. It’s easy to use and work, making your gas hob work almost like a halogen hob.
- When boiling pasta, rice or veg do not use too much water. The less water you use, the faster your food will cook.
- Staying with the pasta theme. Heat a pan of water to boiling point and add your pasta. Then place a lid on the pot and turn off the hob, but leave the pan on the heat. After around just 8 minutes you will have perfect pasta. It usually only takes a few minutes for a pan of water with the lid on to boil, so this will drastically reduce your energy use when cooking.
- Have a salad! Simple I know, but this a healthy way to reduce your carbon footprint when preparing food. You will have bigger reductions if you buy local produce or even grow your own.
So, there you have it. 5 simple tips to save you time, money and energy while cooking!
I hope they are of some benefit to you.
If you have any energy saving cooking tips that you can share with me and others here then I would really appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to write them in the comment section below. This way we can all benefit.
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Solar ovens work surprisingly well and are pretty simple to operate.
Thanks Bill for the info on Solar Ovens. I will look into these and may post an entry on it sometime soon.
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Cheers,
Eco Bloke
Good Tips ecobloke.
We have an Owl Electricity Monitor. One way we use it is when putting on our electric oven to warm up – household consumption shoots up but once it reaches temperature the monitor goes down again – so you know when you can start using the oven straight away if you’re not in the room(great for things like cakes and bread) so it avoids leaving the oven on for a long time unused.
PS I’d highly recommend household electricity monitors – they are a really good way of keeping on top of your consumption and fascinating to use. I can tell at a glance if something has been left switched on when it shouldn’t have been and the whole family use it.
Thanks for this Sally.
We too use one of these energy monitors. In fact I have been reseaching the possiblity to get these free for my blog readers.
So to all those that don’t have one, keep checking back as I will post as soon as I have details!
But does you owl thing not waste electicity? Sounds like you have fallen for a cleaver sales pitch to me. Wasting leccy to save leccy. How brainwashed are we?
Nice post, Eco Bloke.
I have a question – which uses less energy… cooking something slow on the stove, or cooking it in a slow cooker (Crockpot)?
Thanks,
Peg
Hi Peg,
Thanks for the question.
I have just done a little research and found a slow cooker that uses 44% less engery than other models and 66% less energy than an oven.
It’s the Morphy Richards Ecolectric Slow Cooker.
So I guess if you are useing this one then it wins hands down, but it would depend on the model.
Hope this helps
Eco Bloke
Cool, thanks. I see that model has an insulated lid – what a great idea!
Hello Peg,
I’m currently searching for the answer to the exact same question. I’ve been online now for over, a very tedious, hour…
According to http://www.falkirk.gov.uk a
100w light bulb consumes 1 unit of electricity (1000watts) over 10 hrs
A Slow Cooker consumes 1 unit over 8 hours.
I haven’t been able to find any comparison with gas usage. But I’m off now to check with the manufacturers, and will let you all know if I find anything.
Thanks for doing the homework Carrie!
Peg
Thanks for this I am def guilty of point 1 – I will make sure in future I put a lid on it !
When boiling pasta, rice or veg do not use too much water. The less water you use, the faster your food will cook – This is an eye-opener! Thanks for the tips ecobloke.