# Tips for reducing energy consumption using major kitchen appliances
Typical advice to reduce your energy bill is usually to go out and buy a new unit, but this is not always necessary. Your current fridge, dishwasher, and oven likely are not broken mechanically, but rather are wasting electricity due to neglect. By addressing that neglect, you can solve the majority of your problem without ever spending a cent on a new appliance.
Table of Contents
Start With the Fridge, Because It’s the Biggest Energy Hog in Your Kitchen
The refrigerator is running 24/7, all the time, so it uses about 13 to 14% of a typical home’s electricity. More than any other single appliance (U.S. Department of Energy). So it’s the first place you should look when you’re trying to reduce a bill, not the oven or dishwasher.
Two things do most of that wasting: dirty condenser coils and worn door gaskets. The condenser coils, which are usually behind or underneath the unit, serve as a double-duty heat exchanger. When they’re coated with dust and pet hair, the compressor has to run longer to move the same amount of heat. Pull the fridge out a couple of times per year and vacuum the coils. It takes ten minutes and really can make the compressor run fewer cycles.
The door gaskets are just as important. A worn seal leaks cold air constantly, and the compressor has to cycle on more frequently to compensate. Test it with a dollar bill: close the door on it and let half hang out. Then try to pull it. If it slides out with little resistance, the seal isn’t sealing and you have to replace it.
Stop Overcooling Your Fridge and Freezer
Many people tend to adjust the thermostat in their fridge way cooler than necessary, assuming that it will be safer for food storage. But in reality, that’s not the case. Food safety actually recommends a fridge temperature of 37-40°F (3-4°C) and 0°F (-18°C) for the freezer. Cooling it down more than that will only waste energy and not give you any extra benefits.
In freezers that require manual defrosting, such as the older models or chest freezers, the situation gets even worse when you add the regular frost build-up to the mix. Frost actually works as an insulator, causing the compressor to work extra to reach the desired inside temperature. So, if you have an older model that tends to get frosty, check it out each season and scrape off all the ice before it becomes too thick to manage.
Rethink How You Run the Dishwasher
The heat-dry setting is the dishwasher’s largest energy draw because it uses an electric heating element to blast hot air for the last twenty minutes of the cycle. Instead, let your dishes air dry or use the energy-saving dry feature if your dishwasher has one.
Running your dishwasher only when it’s full saves more energy than you might think. Half-loading it twice uses roughly double the energy for the same number of dishes. Also, stop pre-rinsing dishes because unless your dishwasher is over a decade old, it’s designed to handle food residue. Just scrape as much food as possible into your trash can or garbage disposal using a rubber spatula or paper towel.
Use the Oven Less, and Use It Smarter
Ovens use energy inefficiently since they need to heat a large space in order to cook a small meal. For these, a microwave, toaster oven, or the convection setting available in many modern ovens will be more than sufficient and use a fraction of the electricity in the process.
When you do use the full oven, remember to preheat only as long as the recipe specifies (many modern ovens will come to temperature well before the preheat time is up). If you’re not sure whether the food is cooking right, resist the urge to open the door and check – each time you do so, a large portion of the heat inside escapes and the oven uses significant energy to get back up to temperature.
For those on time-of-use electricity rates, this is where scheduling pays off. Remember that dishwashers and self-cleaning ovens don’t care when they start, so why not have them turn on during the cheaper nighttime hours rather than peak evening times? There’s no opportunity cost to you, just potentially lower bills.
Know When Maintenance Stops Working
These fixes handle most kitchen appliance waste, but they won’t eliminate a mechanical failure. If your fridge runs constantly no matter the condition of the coils and seals, if it’s emitting grinding or clicking sounds, or if the oven and dishwasher are still not performing to standard after you’ve optimized every setting, something internal is actually failing – a worn compressor, a defective thermostat, a heating element that has burnt out.
At that stage, DIY adjustments won’t make much difference, and it’s seldom the most economical solution to replace the entire appliance. A professional RightFix technician can identify the specific malfunctioning part and replace it, a solution that costs a fraction of buying new and gets your appliance back to running efficiently instead of just running.
The Bottom Line
The first step to reducing your kitchen energy bill is not to go shopping. It’s to check coils, gaskets, thermostat settings, and embrace a few new habits that don’t cost anything. Get those out of the way, and put off making that repair or replacement until a real component actually fails.
