It’s that time of year, which means it’s time to start up the oven, turn on the burners, and get to cooking that Thanksgiving dinner. It also means that you’ll be using tons of energy to prepare your meal. Follow these easy tips from our HVAC service experts to reduce your energy consumption while you make your delicious family dinner:
1. Don't keep opening the oven door
We understand you want to keep checking on the turkey, but when you open the oven door, you let out a ton of heat. This then makes your oven work more than it needs to, to get back that heat you let out. Making it use more energy and driving up that energy bill. Most ovens have windows with lights so just check that turkey through the window to save some energy.
2. Cook on the correct burners
Your oven has different sized burners for a reason – use the larger burners for larger pots and the smaller burners for smaller pots. When you use a large burner for a small pot, you end up wasting energy. Size matters people :)
3. Put serval items in the oven at once
By baking your mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and pumpkin pie all at once, you’ll cut down on the amount of time that your oven is on. Make sure each of your sides though, are supposed to cook at the same temperature, we don't want to be the blame for your overcooked pumpkin pie.
4. Use your microwave.
If you find that some of your Thanksgiving dishes can be cooked in the microwave, use it. Microwaves use much less energy than an oven and can cook things in less time.
5. Fill up your dishwasher.
Instead of hand-washing your dishes, use your dishwasher to save water. Also, instead of using water to rinse all of your plates, scrape the food off of them before loading them into the dishwasher.