Energy-Efficient Kitchen Tips
Energy-Efficient Kitchen Appliances
The EnergyGuide label on new refrigerators will tell you how much electricity in kilowatt-hours (kWh) a particular model uses in one year. The smaller the number, the less energy the refrigerator uses and the less it will cost you to operate. In addition to the EnergyGuide label, don't forget to look for the ENERGY STAR label. A new refrigerator with an ENERGY STAR label uses at least 15% less energy than required by current federal standards and 40% less energy than the conventional models sold in 2001.
Refrigerator/Freezer Energy Tips
Range/Oven
Most home ovens use 200-700 kiloWatt-hours per year. Here are few tips to become more energy efficient:
Dishwasher
Most of the energy used by a dishwasher is for water heating. The EnergyGuide label estimates how much power is needed per year to run the appliance and to heat the water based on the yearly cost of natural gas and electric water heating.
Induction cooking is one of many advances made in home cooking. With induction cooking, surfaces stay cool while the food gets warm or hot. It uses magnetic friction to deliver heat through coils to the pots or pans on the surface. This prevents the ceramic surface from becoming hot, which prevents burns. The pots that are used must be made of magnetic materials, such as iron or steel, for the best results.
These units have very high efficiency ratings (in terms of the amount of heat used for actual cooking versus the total amount of heat delivered by the equipment), especially when compared to gas systems.
Many people use microwave ovens for a variety of cooking purposes, but they do not have the ability to grill or broil. Now, with light energy ovens, tungsten/ halogen lamps are positioned around the interior and computer-controlled "thermal-pulsing" selectively directs energy both into and onto the food. You get the size, convenience, and speed of a microwave oven, combined with the cooking ability of a regular oven or grill.