Kitchen is the Biggest Energy User

Save Energy and Improve the Environment by: Environmental News

You can lower your monthly energy bill and contribute to a cleaner environment without making major changes or buying expensive energy-saving gadgets. Simple changes, and thought given to energy reduction, will make a significant difference.

Dish Washing

If washing dishes by hand, fill one basin with warm soapy water and the other with cold rinse water. This saves much more water than leaving the cold water running for rinsing.
If you're using the dishwasher, pre-rinse dishes with cold water. Be sure machine is full, but not overloaded.

Turn off automatic air-dry switch, and let dishes dry by air. If your machine doesn't have an air-dry switch, turn off the control knob after the final rinse and prop the door open a bit so the dishes will dry faster.

If a small load, avoid using "Rinse-Hold". This uses 3 to 7 gallons of hot water each time it's used.
Check the manual that came with your dishwasher for the manufacturer's recommendations on water temperature; many have internal heating elements that allow you to set the water heater in your home to a lower temperature (115 degrees).

Microwave

Microwaves use between one-fifth and one-half as much energy as conventional stoves.
Microwaves are most efficient at cooking small portions and for defrosting.

Food cooks faster when placed on the outer edges of a rotating tray rather than in the center, allowing more microwaves to interact with the food.

Food cooks faster in a microwave as the surface-to-volume ratio increases. When cooking potatoes, for example, thinner slices will cook faster than cubed or quartered sections.

During warm weather, microwave use minimizes radiant heat build-up from the kitchen.

This table from the Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings compares the cost of cooking a casserole in several ways. It assumes the cost of gas is $.60 a therm, and electricity is $.08 a kWh.

Gas and Electric Ranges

Gas stoves with an electric ignition (piezo) will use 40% less gas than one with a continuous pilot light. Burner flames on gas stoves should be blue. If flame is yellow, the ports need to be unclogged or adjusted. Ports can often be cleaned with a pipe cleaner.

When using the oven, try to reduce the number of times you open the door while cooking. Each time the door is opened, the stove loses about 1/4th of its heat.

Match pot size to burner size on your stove top. Heat is lost and energy is wasted if burner size is larger than pot size. Also, clean range-top burners and reflectors to better reflect the heat, and save energy.

Use pressure cookers. They use 50-75 percent less energy than ordinary cookware.
On electric stovetops, use flat-bottomed pans that make full contact with the elements.
If you cook on an electric range, you can turn off the burners or the oven before the cooking is finished, because it will take several minutes for the burners to lose their heat.

Induction cooking uses 90% of the energy produced compared to only 55% for a gas burner and 65% for traditional electric ranges.

Induction cooking is based on magnetic fields: each ‘element’ (an induction coil) generates a magnetic field that induces heat in steel cookware placed on top of it. In essence, the pot becomes the element that cooks the food, so the cooktop surface doesn’t get as hot as other cooktops. Induction cooktops have the same instant control as gas and are the fastest of all cooktop types to heat and cook food

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I’ve personally saved a lot of money as well, although at first glance I didn’t think I would when comparing the goes green type products I got at the food co-op and my grocery store. However most eco friendly products are not using water as the first ingredient.