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 this guide, we share some of our top tips on how you can save energy while preparing your meals.
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 incredibly versatile and can be used to prepare a wide range of food choices. They can take a lot of the hassle out of meal prep. Often it’s very easy to just throw everything in, stick the lid on and leave it to gently cook over the course of the day.
They are also incredibly cheap to run, costing 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.
Be careful when you use your air fryer. 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 35p 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.
Check your energy labels
If you’re replacing a kitchen appliance like a cooker you should always compare energy labels as well as other factors when deciding which to purchase. Energy labels will give different appliances an energy rating and tell you how much they are expected to use in a year. While the cheapest appliance might be the most desirable initially, there may be one slightly more expensive that will save you money in energy costs in the long run, making it the truely cheaper model.
Smarter Cooking
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.
Keep the door shut
Cooking in the Oven? Keep your oven door clean and don’t open it to check on it repeatedly as this lets out the heat and will take longer to cook.
Support from Cosy Kingdom
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:
- Calling 01592 807930
- Texting COSY then YOUR NAME to 88440
- Emailing info@cosykingdom.org.uk
- Request advice online