Savvy Tips To Help You Save Energy When Cooking

Cook smarter, not harder, with these easy tips on how to save energy when you are cooking.

If you’re looking to reduce your carbon footprint and lower your energy bills, making your kitchen more energy-efficient is a great place to start.

The kitchen, after all, is a surprisingly energy-intensive place. Thankfully, with a few simple tweaks to your cooking style, it’s easy to keep your energy use in check without compromising on the meals you make.

This is especially relevant as energy bills are set to rise even further in 2025. We’re all looking for ways to save money. And beyond the monetary aspect, energy saving is really important for the environment. This is because, on average, the electricity and gas we use create about a quarter of all carbon emissions from our homes. Cut our electricity and gas use, and we cut our carbon emissions, helping to tackle climate change.

How To Save Energy Cooking

Here are my top tips to help you save energy in the kitchen. Use the quick links to jump to a specific section if you’re in a hurry, or keep scrolling to read the full post.

• Use A Lid
• Use The Right-Sized Pan
• Use Your Oven Efficiently
• Defrost Your Food Overnight
• Keep The Oven Door Closed
• Use Residual Heat To Warm Your Kitchen
• Embrace Your Microwave
• Try Other Energy-Saving Appliances
• Avoid Putting Hot Food In Your Fridge Or Freezer
• Defrost Your Freezer Regularly
• Clean Up After Cooking The Green Way

Use A Lid

If you’re cooking on the hob, try to use a lid when you are boiling or simmering food. This is because a pan without a lid loses a significant amount of heat, meaning your hob has to work harder to maintain the temperature. Covering your pot traps the heat inside, allowing your food to cook faster and uses less energy.

However, there are times when leaving the lid off is a better option. If you’re searing meat, frying foods, or reducing sauces, keeping the lid off helps achieve the desired texture and prevents excess moisture buildup.

Use The Right-Sized Pan

The lid isn’t the only thing to think about. The size of the pots and pans that you use matters too when it comes to cooking efficiently.

If you place a small saucepan on a large ring, much of the heat escapes around the sides rather than being directed to your food.

Meanwhile, if you use a large pot on a small hob ring, the heat will be unevenly distributed. This can lead to longer cooking times and wasted energy. The outer edges of the pot may also not receive enough heat, meaning you’ll likely have to turn up the heat to compensate, using more energy in the process.

Matching the right pan to the right burner ensures you’re using energy efficiently, helping you to save money.

Use Your Oven Efficiently

The oven is by far the most energy-intensive and expensive way of cooking your food – currently around 22p an hour.

That’s not to say don’t use your oven – it can be the most energy-efficient way to cook certain dishes. However, if you want to save money, then it’s best to utilise all the space in your oven. If you can plan ahead and cook multiple meals in one go, then this means you won’t have to heat up the oven repeatedly, cutting down on wasted energy.

So, if you are baking some potatoes for tonight’s dinner, you could roast some vegetables for tomorrow night’s dinner at the same time. It’s a great way to make the most of a hot oven and save some cash. Plus, I always find that baked potatoes taste rubbish when cooked in the microwave, so you don’t even have to compromise on the taste of your baked beans and jacket potatoes!

Defrost Your Food Overnight

In a similar vein, if you tend to rely on the microwave to defrost frozen items, then you could be using more energy than you need to. Instead, I recommend planning ahead and defrosting your food overnight in the fridge. This helps you to reduce your cooking times and make the most of the energy you do use.

Keep The Oven Door Closed

If you’re baking a cake or roasting some vegetables, try to resist the temptation to keep opening the oven door. I know it’s hard, but each time you peek inside, some heat escapes, and the oven has to work harder to maintain the set temperature.

Instead, try to use the oven light to check on your food and keep the door shut as much as possible.

Use Residual Heat To Warm Your Kitchen

Once you’re finished cooking, don’t let all that heat go to waste. If you leave the oven door open after switching it off, you can warm up your kitchen with the residual heat.

This is strictly on the proviso that it is safe to do so, though. If you have small children or curious pets, keep the oven closed until it has sufficiently cooled down enough that it won’t burn anyone.

Embrace Your Microwave

Whether you pronounce it microwave or meek-ro wah-vé a la Nigella Lawson, did you know that using your microwave is a great way to save energy when you are cooking?

Yup, according to Energy Star, a US programme that rates the energy efficiency of household appliances, cooking or reheating small portions of food in the microwave can save as much as 80% of the energy used to cook or warm the food up in the oven.

You see, microwaves work by using high-frequency radio waves to heat water molecules inside the food. This makes them ideal for cooking small quantities of food very quickly.

With small quantities of food, not only do they cook in minutes (or less), but you’re also saving energy through the fact that you don’t need to preheat your oven. My electric oven takes an age to heat up (15 minutes or so to 200°C), so for every portion of food I cook in the microwave, I’m saving at least 25 minutes of oven electricity.

For large quantities of food, you won’t save energy cooking food in your microwave. Here, it’s always more efficient to use your hob or oven, due to the larger content of water molecules and the differing way that hobs and ovens cook food.

Try Other Energy-Saving Appliances

The microwave isn’t the only appliance that can help you save energy. Slow cookers, pressure cookers, and air fryers use a fraction of the energy of an oven and can be just as effective.

A slow cooker, for example, despite being on for much longer, can slowly cook a meal over the course of a day whilst using tiny amounts of energy. They use roughly about the same amount of electricity as a lightbulb.

Pressure cookers are another great option for energy savers. Because they cook food under high pressure, they dramatically reduce your cooking times. That means less energy spent boiling, roasting, or steaming. Plus, they retain more nutrients in your food compared to other methods.

Meanwhile, air fryers cook food quickly using rapid air circulation. Unlike conventional ovens, which take time to heat up and often require preheating, air fryers reach the desired temperature almost instantly. They also use less electricity because they cook food in a smaller space, meaning less energy is needed to generate and maintain heat. We’ve been using one for about three years now and would not be without it.

Avoid Putting Hot Food In Your Fridge Or Freezer

You might not think that your fridge-freezer has a big role to play in saving energy, but keeping it running efficiently can save a surprising amount of energy.

One simple tip is to avoid placing hot food directly into the fridge or freezer. Doing so raises the internal temperature, forcing your fridge or freezer to work harder to cool everything down. Leave leftovers on the side to cool for a little while, and you’ve got dinner for another day and some extra pennies in your pocket. Win win!

Defrost Your Freezer Regularly

On the topic of freezers, I know it’s one of the world’s worst jobs, but defrosting your freezer regularly can save you a chunk on your energy bills.

You see, when frost builds up, it creates a layer of ice that forces the appliance to work harder to maintain its low temperature. This extra effort means more energy consumption and higher electricity bills. By defrosting your freezer regularly, you ensure that it can run at its optimal level.

Clean Up After Cooking The Green Way

Finally, even cleaning up after cooking can be energy-intensive. If you have a dishwasher, try to only run it when it’s full, and opt for the eco setting if your machine has one. Shorter wash cycles may take less time – some finishing in less than 30 minutes – but they use a lot more energy and water than the much longer eco cycles. A

And if you are washing dishes by hand, it’s always best to fill your sink instead of washing them under a running tap.

More Top Energy Saving Tips

If you want to go further and save even more energy, then try my other tips on saving energy in the kitchen:

• Why filling your freezer can save you money and energy.
• Why dusting your fridge can help you save energy.