Clean your oven. Not only does this prevent unwanted household smells, it also saves the energy needed to keep your oven hot. Your oven does not have to heat up anything extra and it keeps the air circulating.
Don’t preheat unless you are baking. Most of the time when you are cooking, preheating is not necessary and it wastes energy.
Turn off the oven a few minutes early. Your oven takes a long time to cool down, therefore if you turn your oven off a few minutes before the food is done, it will continue to cook as normal and will decrease wasted energy while cooking.
Avoid opening the oven early. Every time you open your oven while your food item is cooking, you release a ton of heat, causing the oven temperature to go down around 25 degrees. The oven then has to use more energy to heat it up again.
Stagger pans and baking sheets. Air flow is very important in the oven to efficiently use energy, therefore if you have several items in the oven, try to stagger them so that the air can continue to circulate.
Only use the self clean feature right when the oven is still hot. This way the oven will not have to use as much energy to use this feature. The best way to clean the oven and use the least amount of energy is to wait until the oven is completely cool, then clean the oven by hand with a rag, soapy water, and some elbow grease.
