The kitchen uses a big chunk of your home energy budget. Your refrigerator alone—which is on 24 hours a day— accounts for about 10 percent of the total home electricity bill. So where can you apply energy efficiency in the kitchen?

Shopping for a major appliance before the old one breaks down gives you the best chance to find a higher efficiency model with the features you want. The typical refrigerator sold today has more features yet uses less than half the electricity of a comparable model sold in 1980. Choose ENERGY STAR® appliances to ensure greatest efficiency and energy savings.

Power$mart Tips : Put the Power in Your Hands

• Buy a new fridge that is the right size for your needs to avoid wasting energy cooling nothing.
• Use a microwave or toaster oven to cook small portions and a conventional oven or stove-top for larger items.
• A watched pot will eventually boil—but putting a lid on it reduces cooking time and energy use. Also, match the pot size to burner size to avoid energy waste.

FACT
Refrigerators in the U.S. alone use the equivalent of the output of about 60 300-MW power plants. If all of the nation’s households used the most efficient refrigerators, electricity savings would eliminate the need for about 20-30 power plants.