Stay Cool while cooking this Summer
To keep your kitchen cool during summer, swap the big oven for small countertop appliances like air fryers or microwaves, move cooking outdoors to a grill, embrace no-cook meals like salads, run your range hood exhaust fan to pull out heat and humidity, and stay hydrated with ice water
Smart Appliance Choices
Cook outdoors to reduce the heat in the house and the additional load on your air conditioner. According to Sawnee EMC, your AC is typically the largest user of electricity during the summer months.
- Ditch the oven: Use a microwave, slow cooker, or toaster oven instead of heating up your entire kitchen with a large conventional oven. These appliances use less energy than conventional stove tops or ovens, especially when preparing smaller meals.
- Fire up the grill: Take your cooking outside to a patio grill or camp stove whenever you need a hot meal.
- Embrace no-cook recipes: Rely on fresh salads, sandwiches, wraps, and pre-cooked proteins.
Airflow and Ventilation
- Run exhaust fans: Turn on your kitchen range hood during and for several minutes after cooking to pull hot air and moisture right out of the house.
- Position fans wisely: Set up a fan to blow hot air out a window rather than just pushing the warm air around.
- Circulate with ceiling fans: Set your ceiling fan to spin counterclockwise so it pushes air straight down to create a cooling breeze.Â
Cooking Habits
- Cover your pots: Put lids on pots to trap steam and speed up cooking time, which stops heat from escaping into the room.
- Turn off burners early: Shut off electric or gas heat a minute or two before food finishes, letting residual heat complete the job.
- Cool your pulse points: Keep a damp, cold towel around your neck or wrists while working near the stove.
Pro Tip: cooking in glass or ceramic ovenware, you can turn the temperature down by 25 degrees and cook in the same amount of time as you would with metal pots or pans.
Live, Eat, Play and Stay Cool in FoCo!
