We all want to whack up the heating when it’s this cold but central heating uses more energy and can push up those bills. The good news is that being a bit energy-savvy, you can lower costs in other areas. Most people have a lot of appliances in the kitchen so we’ve had a good look around to see how you can save energy and keep an extra bit of cash in your pockets. Check out our hottest energy-saving tips for the kitchen here:
Fridge:
Let’s start with the energy-hungry fridge. Don’t make this appliance work overtime and consume even more energy, so never put warm food inside or open the door too often. Keeping food in the fridge between 3 and 5 degrees Celsius keeps food fresher for longer, meaning you don’t have to spend money on food as often.
Microwave:
Allow frozen food to defrost naturally via the fridge or on the side rather than using the microwave to do this. You need to think ahead as frozen food takes more time to thaw out naturally but it’s worth it. This little hack saves money for the time taken for the electricity used for the microwave. An extra handy tip is to leave the microwave unplugged unless you’re using it.
Hob:
Keep cooking to a minimum. Cooking with less heat and being frugal can save you some hard-earned cash. Turning off the heat up to five minutes before the food is ready saves electricity as the saucepan and food stay hot and will continue to cook with the residual heat.
Another nifty trick to save both time and money is to heat the water using the kettle and then pour it into the saucepan rather than heating up cold water on the cooker.
Oven:
A golden rule for all appliances is only to turn them on when you need them, and this especially applies to the oven. Pre-heating the oven for a maximum of 10 minutes should be enough (depending on the size of the cooker to warm it up to the right temperature. Any longer than this, power is just being unnecessarily wasted and costing more money. When you use the oven, try to cook two dishes at the same time, and leaving the door open afterwards will heat up the kitchen.
Kettle:
A great habit to get into is to unplug the kettle when you’re not boiling it, and when you do need a cup of tea, only boil the amount of water you need.
Tap:
Have you heard of water-saving taps? They’re a smart investment because they limit the water flow rate and temperature. This reduces how much water you use, how much your boiler is used to heat up the water and as a result, you also reduce your bills. To give you an idea of how effective water-saving taps are, you go from using 12 litres per minute to only 5 litres. Definitely worth checking out!