Your electric oven is one of the worse energy hogs in your home. If you read my earlier article, Energy Hogs: Where Does Most of Your Electricity Go?, you’ll see that the oven uses 5,000 watts of energy! Compare that to the average light bulb at 60 watts. While we should be turning off our lights whenever possible, maybe we should also be turning off the oven.
Toaster Oven
If you are making a small meal, consider using a toaster oven. Because it is smaller, it uses less electricity to run. I don’t have a very large toaster oven, but I use it all of the time in place of a regular oven. You would be surprised what can fit in it. I use my toaster oven for baking quick breads, such as corn bread, cooking a meat loaf, etc. Loaf pans fit really well in a toaster oven, so do square and round baking pans. I’ve even baked casseroles in my toaster oven. If it can fit in my toaster oven, then there is no need for me to heat up the larger energy hog of a traditional electric oven.
Crock Pot
Crock pots are wonderful ways to make meals. Not only are they convenient, they use less energy than that large oven. It is true that they are on all of the time, but you still save money because the energy they need to maintain their heat (provided you aren’t a frequent peeker) is less than that of the oven. In the summer, you can even place your crock pot on a porch to keep its heat out of the house, and therefore save money on cooling costs. Crock pots have long been the staple of frugal cooking. Check out these crock pot cooking tips.
Solar Oven
Try a solar oven for cooking. It requires absolutely no energy usage what so ever! They are a good choice if you really need to conserve. Solar ovens can be purchased, but they are really easy to make. If you want to learn all about solar ovens, read my previous article, What is a Solar Oven?
Happy cooking!
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