Save energy in the kitchen
Learn how to make cooking more energy-efficient
Batch cook to save time and money
Batch cooking uses a lot less energy than cooking individual meals every night of the week, saving around £100 a year for the average household. It can also cut down the time spent making and cooking meals – giving you more time to relax or get on with other chores.
There are plenty of free batch cooking recipes available with easy suggestions for low-cost and low-prep meals on BBC Good Food and supermarket websites. Whatever your dietary requirements, or however many mouths you have to feed, there’ll be a recipe for you.
These meals can be cooked and stored in your fridge or freezer, to be reheated when you need them.
Energy-efficient cooking
When it comes to cooking or reheating a meal – you don’t always need to use the oven (especially for just one meal). Some appliances are more efficient than others, but always check to see what is recommended and safe for each meal.
If you’ve got an air-fryer, microwave, hob (gas or electric) or slow cooker you might find they can reduce your energy bills for certain foods.
Our Green Doctors have identified helpful impartial advice on what can really make a difference in reducing bills and saving energy.
Download our supporting home resources – our action plan, our meal and shopping planners, and our stickers – to help you make changes which stick.
Remember pan lids on saucepans
A really simple way to heat food more efficiently and reduce the amount of moisture going into the air is to use a lid on a saucepan – a pan with a lid uses 85% less energy than an uncovered pan.*
Not only will it save energy by keeping the heat inside the pan, but it will lower the chance of damp, mould and condensation in your kitchen by trapping the evaporating liquids.
Make a plan. Stay warm. Save energy.
- Use our meal planner and shopping list to plan ahead and save energy with batch-cooking.
*From ‘The impact of pot lids on household energy use’ by Olamide Elizabeth Opadokun, Iowa State University (2019).
