It doesn’t matter whether you cook meals at home every night or not—the truth is, your kitchen uses a lot of energy regardless of your cooking habits. If you want to start making more energy efficient choices to live a greener lifestyle and cut back on utility bills, the kitchen is a great place to start, since there are so many ways to reduce your energy use.

Make These Simple Switches

Switch to energy efficient light bulbs.

Families tend to hover around the kitchen, meaning the lights are usually on more than any other room in the house. To cut back on how much energy you’re using on your kitchen lights, switch to energy efficient bulbs. Luckily, energy efficient bulbs have evolved so much that they now have options to fit cabinet mounted, ceiling mounted and recessed can light fixtures. These bulbs use around 75% less energy than standard models—and last ten times longer, too!

Use glass or ceramic dishes in the oven.

What kind of dishes are you baking with? When the recipe calls for something to be baked in the oven, use a glass or ceramic dish. The food will cook just as fast in these dishes, but you can turn the temperature down by up to 25 degrees Fahrenheit, thus saving you a lot of energy.

Stop These Bad Habits

Use the right sized burner.

You may think choosing which burner to use is only about which one you get to first, but that’s not the case. When you use a small pan on a large sized burner, you are producing more heat than you need, so you are wasting energy. To make your stovetop more energy efficient, always match the pan size to the burner size.

Keep the oven door closed.

No matter how mouthwatering those chocolate chip cookies smell in the oven, keep your oven door closed until you’re ready to remove the food! When you open the door to sneak a peek, the temperature in your oven can drop by approximately 25 degrees Fahrenheit, meaning your oven will have to use more energy to bring the temperature back up once you close the door. Instead of opening the door to see if your food is done, rely on a timer or turn on the oven light to get a closer look.

Unplug appliances.

Whether it is a toaster oven, coffee machine or blender, everyone has an appliance or two in the kitchen that they don’t use that much. Make sure you are keeping these appliances unplugged unless you need to use them, otherwise they will waste energy—even if they are turned off.

Tackle These Projects

Install low flow faucets.

Another simple switch you can make in the kitchen is changing your standard faucets to low flow models. These low flow models are inexpensive and easy to install, so this is a simple project that can easily be done on your own. Once you install the new ones, you’ll see up to a 60% decrease in your water usage!

Follow these simple tips, and your kitchen will be energy efficient from top to bottom! Want to find out how energy efficient your kitchen is now in under five minutes? Take a HomeSelfe!