November is about family gatherings and holiday cooking. That means the stove and oven will be working overtime and using a lot of energy to prepare your holiday meal. Follow these Sparky tips to reduce energy consumption and avoid surprises when the bill comes.

Avoid opening the oven while cooking

While checking the turkey is essential, don’t overdo it. When you open the oven door you let out heat. This may prolong your turkey’s cooking time, and make your oven work harder to get back to the temperature it needs. All this means more energy will be used while your oven returns to the right temperature.

Use the right burners

Ever wonder why you have different sized burners? When you use a large burner for a small pot, you end up wasting energy. If you’re only making a pot of gravy, there is no need to use a large burner, keep the pot on a small range and save big on energy costs in the long run.

Maximize oven space

Bake more than one dish at a time to maximize your oven space and energy consumption. By baking your mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and pumpkin pie all at once, you’ll cut down on the amount of time that your oven is on and save on your energy costs.

Use glass when baking

When you bake your casseroles, use a glass pan instead of a metal one. With glass, you can lower the temperature of your oven by about 25 degrees and still bake it in the same amount of time.

Turn down your thermostat

Your oven and stove top will give off heat (and so will the people in your home), so decrease your thermostat a few degrees to save energy.

Use your microwave.

If you find that some of your Thanksgiving dishes can be cooked in the microwave, use it. Microwaves use much less energy than an oven and can cook things in less time.

Fill up your dishwasher.

Instead of hand-washing your dishes, use your dishwasher to save water. Also, instead of using water to rinse all of your plates, scrape the food off of them before loading them into the dishwasher.