Brighter Planet

Here are a few ways you can use your oven more efficiently:

• Always try to fill the oven. It takes just as much energy to bake a single cookie as 4 trays of cookies—what’s the downside to having more good food?

• Try to do all your baking on the same day. It takes a lot of energy to get the oven up to baking temperature, so make the most of it.

• Avoid opening the oven door. Ovens are made with lights and glass panels on the door for a reason. All the hot air that escapes every time you open the oven door probably took more energy to heat than whatever it is you’re baking!

• Don’t pre-heat the oven. It’s unnecessary unless you’re baking something really delicate. Just remember it will take a little longer than the recipe says if you start the timer when you turn the oven on.

• Turn the oven off early. You just checked the cake, and it will be done in 5 more minutes. Leave the oven on for a minute to get back up to temperature, and then turn it off. It will retain the heat well enough to finish baking.

• Avoid baking in the summer. Why give the air conditioning something else to compete with? If you do decide to bake, try to do it early in the morning or at night when it’s cooler outside.