The kitchen is one of our home’s most energy intensive rooms. If you want to reduce your eco house’s carbon footprint, you need to think about how you use energy in your kitchen and find ways of reducing it. Saving even small amounts of energy each day can amount to big savings on your eco home’s energy bills by the end of the year.

Here are 20 eco kitchen energy saving tips for cutting your energy bills and helping to save the planet at the same time:

1. Use energy saving eco kitchen appliances, such as an eco dishwasher, eco fridge or eco cooker, which have a blue Energy Saving Trust logo. Although they might cost more upfront, they offer long term savings which will more than cover the initial investment
2. Only use your washing machine, tumble dryer or dishwasher when it’s full because one full load uses less energy and water than two half loads
3. Instead of using a tumble dryer, which is a monster at eating up electricity, dry your clothes in your eco house’s garden. This will leave them smelling fresher too
4. Try and keep your fridge and freezer filled up. Leaving them empty means they use more energy keeping food cool
5. Defrost your freezer regularly to reduce the amount of energy it needs to keep food cold
6. Switch off and unplug eco kitchen appliances when they’re not in use. This stops them continuing to sap electricity for powering the standby light. The average home is estimated to waste 25% of its energy on appliances plugged in unnecessarily
7. When you’re making a cup of tea only boil the water you need. So don’t boil a full kettle when you’re just having a cup
8. Keep your kettle clean and de-scaled. This will help it to boil more quickly and use less energy
9. Clean filters in tumble dryers to help them work more efficiently
10. A dripping tap will waste enough water to fill half a bath every year. So it makes sense to get leaking taps fixed throughout your eco home
11. Opening the oven door to check your food reduces the oven’s temperature by 25 degrees. This means it will then use more time and energy than it needs to reheat again. So keep the oven window nice and clean, and use a timer so that you only open the door once the food should be cooked
12. If you’re using an electric oven, turn it off 10 minutes before the food is due to be cooked. The oven’s heat will finish it off without needing any extra power
13. Modern washing powders are more technologically advanced than ten years ago. They can work at lower temperatures, so try running washes at 30º instead of 40º
14. Wash fruit and vegetables in a bowl rather than under the tap to save on your eco home’s water bill
15. Chop vegetables into smaller chunks because this helps them to cook quicker
16. Defrost food in the fridge instead of heating it up in a pan. This will also provide free cooling for your fridge. Similarly, don’t put warm food in your fridge because this will heat it up
17. Put the lid on pans when cooking. This will help them heat up quicker and use less energy. In fact, it’s estimated that heating food without a lid uses up an extra 30% of energy.
18. Putting pans on the right sized hob helps them cook quicker as well

Start implementing some of these eco kitchen energy savings tips in your eco home today and watch your energy bills, and carbon footprint, reduce.