Choosing eco-friendly kitchen appliances won’t just benefit the environment, as it can also save you a lot of money.
A report in Energy.gov indicates that household appliances such as dishwashers and refrigerators can each account for up to 13% of your household energy costs. Choosing eco-friendly appliances and using them more efficiently will easily help you to keep costs down. Here are just some of the best ways to choose and use low energy kitchen appliances.
Refrigerators
Not all refrigerators are the same, so use the Energy Star website to ascertain which models are the most energy efficient. Pick a fridge that suits your needs – remember that if you pick one that’s too small, it will have to work harder to keep things cool and this uses more energy. You can also give your fridge a helping hand by placing it away from direct sources of heat and ditching the added extras such as ice dispensers.
Dishwashers
Dishwashers can be one of the biggest energy guzzlers so, as with the fridge, look for models that have a good star rating, especially those with energy saving cycles. Looking for a dishwasher with an energy efficient water heating system is also good, as most of the energy consumed from dishwashers comes from the heating system. Try not to waste energy by running half empty loads and avoid using unnecessary extra cycles like drying features. Using an environmentally friendly grease trap like the ones found at Clearflow Environmental Technologies Ltd (http://www.ukgreasetrapsdirect.co.uk/) can also help reduce the amount of fat entering your system. Try to scrape rather than hand rinse to avoid water wastage.
Hob
A cooker top usually has two fuel options – electricity and gas. Electric does give you the benefit of switching to solar power in the future, but electricity is often generated by burning coal – a rapidly declining fossil fuel that causes damage to the environment. Gas is a cleaner and more efficient fuel source, but it does come with risks such as carbon monoxide emissions, so a sophisticated ventilation and extraction system is needed for safety. Magnetic cooker systems are a new product hitting the market and could be a worthwhile investment for many homeowners. These work by generating heat directly, through specialist cookware using magnetism, thus reducing wasted energy.