Baking tonight? Keep it efficient

 Baking is quickly becoming a thing of the past as busy families rely on fast food and pre-packaged “heat and eat” meals. But if you are one of those “chefs” inspired by the all the cooking shows on TV, make sure that you are baking efficiently.

Buying products that bear the Energy star label is a surefire way to save electricity around the house. But the government doesn’t require energy-efficiency labels for ovens. So it’s up to you to conserve energy as you prepare your meals. Here’s how:

• Use the microwave rather than the conventional oven whenever you can. Microwaves use half as much energy as the oven and cook food faster.
• Preparing a small meal? Cook it in a portable appliance like an electric frying pan, grill or toaster oven. These small appliances eat up about two-thirds less electricity than an oven’s broiler.
• Cook as much of an oven-baked meal at once as possible. Variations in heat of 25 degrees in either direction will still brown your food nicely.
• Skip pre-heating, especially when broiling or roasting.
• If you need to rearrange your oven shelves, do it before you turn the oven on. That helps you waste less heat by opening the door of a heated oven – and it can prevent burns.
• Avoid opening the door while your food is cooking.
• Wipe up minor oven spills with a damp cloth and us the oven’s self-cleaning cycle only for major messes. And when you need the self cleaner, run it right after you prepare a meal when the oven is already hot.
• And of course, never use an electric oven as a room heater or to dry damp clothes.

Remember that it is especially important to use your oven efficiently during hot weather because when heated air escapes from your oven you are not only wasting the energy you are cooking with, you are also wasting energy by making your air conditioning system work harder to cool the room you are cooking in.

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