Kitchen appliances have come a long way from those of our parents. While I am sure they were concerned about energy usage especially if heating or cooking with wood because let me tell you, that is a lot of work, in today's world we are dealing with energy conservation concerns. The modern kitchen is a mecca of both large and small kitchen appliances, all demanding their use of electricity or hydro. That means the frugal homemaker has to decide between the best and lowest energy usage for any appliance he or she is purchasing. Surprisingly, there is a trend among frugalistas to buy non-electric appliances, and that is certainly an option for small kitchen appliances. However, with large kitchen appliances you are still left with wood, natural gas, hydro and propane. We specifically chose to go with a natural gas range when we bought this house because here in our little corner of the world, natural gas is about a third of the price of hydro. For the amount of cooking we do, buying a natural gas range has pretty much paid for itself and we haven't been here 2 years yet.
Manufactures like Kleenmaid based in Australia are rising to need of eco-friendly, green appliances. Oh my gosh, I so want their pop-up oven! That is about the slickest kitchen appliance I have ever seen. They also have an induction cooktop that I would love to have. The beauty is both of these appliances are eco-friendly aka green appliances in that they use less energy than similar appliances in their category. Other manufactures are also doing the same thing buy manufacturing eco-friendly appliances.
Energy Star is a rating system that tells you how that appliance performs in relation to other appliances on the market. A high Energy Star rating really means that is the unit you should buy because it uses less energy than one similar to it. Essentially, if you are comparing 2 refrigerators - one has no Energy Star rating and the other has an Energy Star rating then the wiser choice is the Energy Star rated appliance and if you have a choice between ratings, choose the higher ranked appliance.
When it comes to large appliances, choose the appliance based on the fuel choice for your area. If natural gas is less expensive, it may be wise to choose a large kitchen appliance that operates on natural gas. You have more leeway with smaller kitchen appliances. They are seldom on long enough to make much of a difference in cost of operation still, manual is more cost effective over electric. Avoid single use small kitchen appliances. This will help you in the goal of running an eco-friendly, green kitchen while saving money!
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