Energy Efficiency Tips to Gobble Up This Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is around the corner, which means families will soon be cooking delicious meals to share with loved ones. Cooking and baking can increase energy consumption, but fortunately, there are several simple ways to keep your energy bill looking as good as your dinner. Follow these tips in the kitchen to save energy and money.

• Use a "lids-on" approach to cooking. Tightly fitted lids on pots and pans help keep heat in, enabling you to shorten the cooking times.
• When preheating an oven for baking, time the preheat period carefully. Five to eight minutes should be sufficient. There is no need to preheat for broiling or roasting.
• Allow hot foods or liquids to cool off before placing them in your refrigerator. The cooling-off period should not hurt the taste of the food and will reduce the load on the refrigerator. Discard any uncooked food that has remained at room temperature for more than two hours.
• Check your refrigerator and freezer doors to make sure they seal tightly. This will keep the cold air in and the warm air out. To test, close the refrigerator door on a dollar bill. If you can slip the bill out easily, or, worse, if it falls out on its own, the door needs to be adjusted or the gasket needs to be replaced.
• When roasting or baking, avoid making frequent progress checks that involve opening your oven door. According to the Department of Energy, opening the oven door can cause the oven temperature to drop by 25 degrees.
• Use your microwave instead of your regular oven whenever possible for smaller dishes. Microwaves draw less than half the power of your regular oven, and they cook for a much shorter period. For example, an item that needs to be cooked in a full-sized oven at 350°F for one hour will take only 15 minutes to cook in a microwave on the "high" setting.
• When operating an electric oven, attempt to cook as much of the meal in it at one time as possible. Foods with different cooking temperatures can often be cooked simultaneously at one temperature-variations of 25 degrees in either direction still produce good results and save energy.

For more energy-saving tips, check out EEI's booklet, More Than 100 Ways to Improve Your Electric Bill.