Saving Energy While Cooking


Cooking is an essential part of our daily lives and some of the most expensive appliances to use in our home are in our kitchens.

In the guide, we are going to share some of our top tips on how you can cut down your energy consumption while cooking at home.

 

Choose your appliance

While it is easy to think the best way to cook is using the oven, several other alternatives can help you save energy while still cooking delicious, nutritious meals.

 

Slow Cooker

Slow cookers are one of our favourite appliances and do not get enough credit for being a great energy-saving gadget.

Slow cookers are incredibly versatile and there are many things you can cook in them that might surprise you!

Slow cookers take a lot of the hassle out of cooking. Often or not, you can throw everything in, stick the lid on and leave it to gentle cook over the course of the day.

They are also incredibly cheap to run, costing you around 2p an hour.

 

Air Fryers

Air fryers have become quite popular over the past couple of years. They’re essentially just a mini-oven, and smaller spaces require less energy to heat.

We would advise caution with your air fryer though; if you plan on using your oven anyway for part of the meal, and doing something else in the air fryer, it is likely to increase your energy costs, not reduce them. You should only use your air fryer if you are not using your oven at all.

Air fryers will cost you around 42p an hour to run.

 

Microwave

Microwaves are great for quickly heating up food, especially if you’ve prepared this earlier by batch cooking.

Microwaves are super-efficient and can heat up most things in only a few minutes. A microwave will cost you around 24p an hour to run, although it’s very unlikely you’ll have it on that entire time.

 

Smarter cooking practices

 

Plan your meals

Producing a meal plan in advance will reduce the need for last-minute cooking. It’ll also help you plan out batch cooking or think about how you could use your appliances more efficiently.

For example, if you have space in your oven, could you cook a meal for later in the week at the same time, store it in your fridge or freezer and reheat it when you need it in the microwave?

 

Batch Cook

Batch cooking not only helps you save energy but can be a money saver too. Bigger portions can usually be purchased cheaper in supermarkets and batch cooking can help you take advantage of that.

The idea with batch cooking is to cook several portions at the same time, and store these in your fridge or freezer to be reheated up later on.

Many people create ‘dump bags’ that they can throw in the slow cooker too.

 

Turn off early

If you’re using your oven, you could consider turning the oven off a few minutes before the time when your food should be cooked. The residual heat will still cook your food through but it’ll help cut down some of your costs.

 

Lids on pans

Cooking something on the hob? If you ensure pots and pans have their lids on them, it’ll help cook food faster. The water will boil more quickly and the steam is trapped inside which helps cook the food too. Not only that, but it helps manage the moisture in your home too.

 

Get advice

Would you like further advice on saving energy at home? Arrange a free and impartial energy advice appointment with one of our energy advisors.

Our energy advisors can be contacted by: