Room by room steps to reduce global warming and your electricity bill.

Step 4 Kitchen

I cant really think of much for this step but I'll have a go!

Free:

Turn up your fridge just a little and it should save a little money.

Make a compost bucket in your kitchen and put in vegetable and fruit scraps like peelings and cores. In the next step it will say what to do with these.

Pays for itself:

When buying food, make sure it is not heavily packaged and buy bulk packages instead of smaller packages, for example instead of a 24 pack of drink cans, buy a few large bottles and reuse them for water. The only problem with reusing them is recent studies have said washing them a few times with hot water and detergent can be harmful, but I have always done this and as far as I know am O.K.

Costs money:
This is a simple thing to help the environment, but it may cost more. When buying cooking oil sprays etc. make sure the can is recyclable and is marked with an {{{ITS OK TO SPRAY}}} logo so that it doesn't damage the ozone layer.

What we have done this step:
Reduced landfill further and helped protect the ozone layer.

Comments

[gearskin]

 A really good tip is to separate your fridge from your stove. It takes more energy to keep your fridge cool if it is sitting next to a constantly warm stove. Just rearranging can be very beneficial. Also, using vinegar and water to clean in the kitchen and reusable dish-towels is another way to say money and help the environment. You can get nice white dish-towels at Ikea for 49 cents and just bleach them if they get really discolored, or check out a local thrift store. 

[gearskin]

 Save* not say..

[labelreader]

I don't know why anyone uses cooking sprays. Oil is easy to work with for nearly all applications (the one exception I can think of: waffle irons -- what a pain!), and it always comes in a recyclable glass or plastic bottle with a lot less processing and waste.

[FooGlacticon]

Or you could buy a Misto. It's a refillable spray can that just uses pressurized air.

[gearskin]

 Mistos are fantastic. You can buy a giant thing of oil (less containers) and just keep refilling the misto. 

[withnall]

Also make sure that there is plenty of free air flow around your fridge and freezer, the cooler the environment they vent into the less energy they have to use cooling the insides.

[Oryctolagus habilis]

About the fridge: you can buy a cheap but accurate (NSF certified) analog fridge/freezer thermometer, so you can adjust the fridge settings until you're using dead-on the least energy to keep within the "safe food zone".

[nameofdane]

The way you cook can also make a big difference in energy consumption. Always keep a lid on a pot when you're boiling something (unless you're trying to reduce the fluid), err on the low side when adding fluid to something that you know will have to be boiled off later on, and try to work at a low boil rather than a rolling one when you can. This last one because at the point that water begins to boil, almost all of the energy being added to the pot is being used to make steam, so a high boil doesn't necessarily indicate a higher temperature than a low boil.

[=spider=]

That tip about boiling is a really good one to know, thanks nameofdane.

[Phill]

I'm pretty sure that most/all CFC's that damage the ozone layer are not available to end-user consumers. Though they are available to specialized uses; like airplane fire retardant. Generally; it's safe to user whatever you have unless you stockpile things from the 60's-70's in which case, ask your local waste management municipality what to do with it. If bought something recently from a store; good chance you can spray it.