Don’t open the oven door to check on your turkey.
It is tempting to quickly open the door and poke around with a fork. However, every time the oven is opened, the temperature drops and lots of energy is required to bring the oven back to the desired temperature. Check on your meal through the oven window instead.
Don’t make your fridge work so hard.
Putting hot food in the fridge will make it harder to maintain your fridge’s temperature. Allow hot foods to cool off before placing them in the fridge. Every time you open your fridge’s door, its compressor must run longer the replace the cold air that has fled. Instead of opening the fridge door multiple times to take out ingredients, plan ahead, and remove everything you need at once.
Light up your Thanksgiving party.
Shorter days lead to longer hours with the lights on – and higher energy bills. Switch any remaining incandescent or CFL bulbs in your home to ENERGY STAR LEDS to have brighter and crisper light for your festivities. Find LED lightbulbs for as low as $0.95 at DCSEU partner retailers.
Adjust your heat.
Expecting a large group of people for dinner? Lower the thermostat a degree or two before the guests arrive. Otherwise, since people generate heat, the space may become hot and humid, making it uncomfortable and wasting energy.
Cook everything at once.
Utilize energy most efficiently and get things done in a timely manner, make sure you’re cooking in glass and ceramic baking dishes. They retain heat better than metal, allowing you to reduce the oven temperature by 25 degrees. Try to cook everything at once – same results, less energy wasted!
Let your dishwasher do the work.
Dishwashers require less than one-third the water it would take to hand-wash dishes. Scrape, and don’t rinse remaining food off plates and dishes before loading them in the dishwasher. Pre-rinsing can waste up to 20 gallons of water! An ENERGY STAR qualified dishwasher will also help you save, using about 6 gallons of water or less per cycle.