Ovens, like many other household appliances, are a necessity we rely on every day in our homes. After all, however would we cook our own food and keep ourselves fed without them? (Ordering takeaways every evening doesn’t count!) And, like all other appliances, it’s important to make sure you’re using your oven as efficiently as possible for the best results…

Of course, nobody can use their oven perfectly… but unfortunately, there are some rookie errors that need to be corrected if you don’t want your oven to needlessly drive up your energy bills. Here, we’re going to discuss one of the most common of these errors – and what you can do to avoid it!

Keep it closed

When your food is cooking in the oven and your stomach starts to grumble, the temptation to keep opening the door and checking if it’s ready can be all too strong. However, this is actually an all-too-common foodie flaw that not only causes your food to take longer to cook, but also increases your energy bill. This is because opening the door allows heat to escape and cools down your oven. As a result, your oven will need to use more energy to get back to the correct temperature and your food will need more time cooking before it’s ready to eat.

Rather than repeatedly opening the door, you should instead simply look through your oven’s door glass to check the progress of your meals while they’re cooking. This little food window is there for a reason, after all! Doing this instead of opening the door will allow your oven to stay hot, your dinner to keep cooking without interruption and – possibly best of all – it will keep your energy usage steady instead of spiking it.

Don’t neglect the door glass

Of course, there is a reason many of us choose not to look through our oven door glass and opt to simply open the door instead… and that reason is that the door glass has become too dirty for us to see through at all! Unfortunately, this is where a little laziness can come into play and do more harm than good, as quickly opening the oven door to glance inside your oven requires a little less work than actually cleaning your oven glass.

But a little effort will work wonders in the long run! So pull out the kitchen cleaner and a scourer or hob scraper and spend five minutes putting in a little elbow grease to clean your oven door glass. Our video below will guide you through disassembling and thoroughly cleaning your oven door and glass, along with cleaning the rest of your oven, helping you get it as clear as the day you first bought your appliance.

If our video guide doesn’t apply to your specific make and model of oven, however, you can instead refer to your oven’s user manual for guidance on taking the door apart to get between the sheets of glass. Once the glass is clean, you’ll be able to see your food cooking inside your oven once more. And just like that, the days of prolonging your cooking and increasing your energy bills will be behind you!

Keeping your oven door closed and the door glass clean is just one of many ways you can cut down your energy usage and save a small fortune. Head over to our 50 appliance energy-saving tips and learn how you can save up to £650 a year with our handy household appliance tips and hacks!

Tags: Energy Saving, Energy Saving Tips, oven, oven maintenance, Save Energy