You can be festive and frugal with these holiday energy-saving tips.
Entertaining tips
- Cook as many dishes as possible in your microwave, slow cooker, air fryer or toaster oven. Because they cook food quicker and are smaller, they can use as much as 75% less energy than a conventional oven.
- When using your oven, check cooking progress by looking through the window. Opening the door for even a few seconds lowers the temperature inside by as much as 25 degrees.
- If your oven doesn’t have a window, try not to open the door to check your food until it’s as close to the expected finish time as possible.
- Turn off your oven several minutes before food is fully cooked. As long as the door remains closed, enough heat will be stored inside to finish cooking your meal.
- If you use glass or ceramic pans, try turning your oven temperature down 25 degrees. Your dish may cook just as quickly.
- When cooking on your stovetop, match the size of the pan to the heating element. More heat will get to the pan and less will be lost.
- Keep your refrigerator and freezer well stocked. A full refrigerator or freezer saves energy by helping it hold a more consistent temperature.
Heating tips
- Set your thermostat between 66 F and 68 F, a comfortable range for most people. Every 1 degree you lower your thermostat may reduce your energy use by 1%-3%.
- Program your thermostat to decrease the temperature 8 degrees when you’re away from home and overnight.
- Start the heating season with a new furnace filter, and clean or replace it monthly to keep your furnace running efficiently.
- Open curtains during the day to allow sunlight to naturally heat the home and close the curtains overnight to reduce chill from the windows. Consider adding thermal curtains to reduce each room’s energy loss by up to 25%.
- Setting your hot water heater to 120 F can cut water heating costs by 10%.
- Open-hearth fireplaces draw heated air from your home, sending it and possibly your energy budget up the chimney. If you use your fireplace, install a snug-fitting set of glass doors and crack open a nearby window. Doing so reduces the amount of heated interior air drawn into the fireplace and improves efficiency by up to 20%.
