5 Energy Saving Tips for the Kitchen

When costs are rising everywhere we turn, many families are finding it imperative that they continue to trim costs. Creative thinking is in order, and frugal folks from every walk of life can share their expertise. As you search for unique and helpful hints, you will find that some ideas appeal to you, while others won't fit with your needs. Nevertheless, the search is worthwhile, if you can find a way to stem the flow of money.

The kitchen may seem like an obvious starting place, but sometimes, the obvious needs re-stating. I find that when times are not as restrictive, financially, that I let my vigilance wane. The areas discussed here are some which are easy to ignore, yet which can make a difference when that monthly power bill arrives.

One of the easiest ways to waste money, in the kitchen is in respect to appliances with doors. The refrigerator, the freezer, and the stove, are all big power users. More power is consumed when the doors of these appliances are not shut promptly. When you are in a rush, it's easy to justify leaving the door of the refrigerator or freezer open, while you move back and forth, either putting away groceries, or getting out ingredients for a meal. Likewise, it's easy to leave the oven door open for a moment, when you are switching out batches of cookies, or other baked goods. Those moments, though, consume extra energy to maintain a temperature.

Begin by purposing to keep the appliance doors open minimally, when the appliance is in use. For the fridge, and freezer, this means always. For the oven, this will be your goal when the oven is on.

Next, get your family on board. You can illustrate with loose change. Use a penny as a starting point. Ask your family members to estimate the number of times they open any of these doors and leave them open in a given day. For each person, equate that to a penny lost, per time. If each member of a 5 person household leaves an appliance open for a few extra moments, estimate the equivalent of a quarter to be wasted that day. Have an older child compute the value of that daily quarter, over the course of a month, and a year. Then equate those amounts to a normal purchase that might be sacrificed because of that daily loss.

A month's worth of quarters would pay for a couple of tubs of ice cream, for example. A year's worth of quarters would total approximately $90. For many kids, this is the cost of enrolling in a community soccer, or baseball, league. Make the imminent savings, or loss, relevant. Not only will you trim mildly from your budget, but you will make your kids' math skills practical.

We tend to become accustomed to convenience, and often justify its use, in the name of saving time. However, there is an inverse relationship, much of the time, between convenience and cost. This is the case with dish-washing. Not only do we load dishes into the dishwasher, and use a lot of energy in the process, but also, we often rinse the dishes ahead of that. My kids often ask why they have to wash dishes, just so they will go into the dishwasher to be washed. Good question!

We lived in a rural environment, at one time, where dishwashers were not common. We did our dishes the old fashioned way...by hand. Life goes on, when you hand-wash your dishes. It takes a little more time, and it does require some hot water. However, it's not a terrible task.

Fast forward to our current trend, rinsing dishes, and running a dishwasher. In a summer's experiment, we discovered that by hand-washing dishes, using the dishwasher to hold the clean dishes for air drying, we saved about $30/month. We ran the dishwasher a couple of times per week, just to keep it from getting smelly. Still, the outcome was a savings. Splitting the savings with the kids who did the hand-washing was worthwhile, getting them on board with the concept.

There are still times when hand-washing is not consistent with our schedule, as a family. However, when it is, its a great means of saving a few dollars.

Use of disposable plates, and other disposable products, is not at all consistent with the modern "green" living trend. However, when it comes to cutting energy costs in the kitchen, this is an easy, and agreeable energy savings tip.

I have a big family, and when we use normal plates, we can run the dishwasher a couple of times a day. When we have time to hand-wash, that's no big deal. However, when things are hectic, it can be costly. In the last month, switching to disposable plates for quick meals cut the power bill down several dollars, probably 3 times the cost of the paper plates. Just as hand-washing trims energy costs in the kitchen, so does using disposable plates.

One of the more obvious energy saving tips for the kitchen, or for any other part of the house, is to make sure lights and switches are turned off, when not in use. A nightlight is a good alternative to leaving a stove light on. Remind your midnight snackers that the fridge light is not an acceptable night light.

Additionally, make sure that appliances are turned off, when not in use, particularly the oven. I have a tendency to pull food out when it's done cooking, and forgetting to shut it off right away. Small appliances can be unplugged when not in use, to save even more.

Seasonally, my baking is adjusted to accommodate the change of weather. During winter, I bake, which provides a source of heat in the kitchen. This lessens the need to turn the heat up on the thermostat.

On the other hand, that heating up is undesirable when the summer temperatures climb. Hence, my summer cooking is on top of the stove, or out of doors, on a grill. The last thing I want is a hot kitchen causing me to need to run the air conditioner. Plan your meals around these considerations, in order to save on heating and cooling costs. If you intend to bake, in summer, do it in the coolest part of the day, either early morning, or late evening. In the winter, consider baked breakfasts as a good way to take the chill out of the air.

Using a simple chart, like the one above, you can plot out a listing of costs, either in terms of waste, or savings, based on little changes you make. Think in terms of something you purchase regularly. Those daily pennies saved, in my household, represent a gallon of milk per week, if we just concentrate on the door shutting aspect of things. Hand-washing dishes represents a month's worth of milk. I may not eliminate the entire power bill, but I do compensate for rising costs, and accommodate some of the extras that we still would like to enjoy, as a family!

If you've found some great energy saving tips for the kitchen, please feel free to include them in the comments section, below!