Energy Efficiency in Commercial Kitchens
There are a lot of factors that can influence an energy-efficient kitchen: staff and customer behaviours, poor performing equipment, minimal maintenance or general lack of knowledge. With a few simple changes, you can reduce your energy usage, cost of bills and environmental impact, all the while increasing your kitchen's performance. This guide talks about why you should make your commercial kitchen more energy efficient and how to go about it.
How To Improve Energy Efficiency In Commercial Kitchens
Energy efficiency in commercial kitchens is becoming more important than ever. Follow these steps and you can can improve your kitchen’s energy efficiency. First, you need to understand what you’re working with. Begin by auditing your existing commercial catering equipment, and logging its age and last service. Over a period of time, monitor each appliance’s energy usage and reference it against your opening times: does the increase in energy match higher footfall? This’ll allow you to track where and when you’re using energy, where it’s being wasted and areas you can reduce it.
Maximise Your Kitchen Ventilation
Adequate ventilation not only provides a suitable working environment, but it also ensures appliances are operating at optimum temperatures; avoiding overheating to clear fumes and heat, or overworking to keep cool within a hot kitchen. Either way, appliances will be wasting a lot of unnecessary energy which could be resolved through clean, clear and correct ventilation.
Allocate Your Appliances Wisely
The layout of your kitchen has a huge impact on its functionality, productivity and energy use. A cleverly designed kitchen will consider the best location for each appliance to work effectively; whilst creating a safe and easy-flowing production line for your staff and customers. Our professional commercial kitchen designers will factor in issues such as not placing fridges next to ovens or choosing multi-purpose appliances.
Your Catering Equipment’s Energy Rating
Along with the layout comes the actual kitchen equipment. Old or poor-performing units will work harder to keep up, using extra energy and potentially costing more to run. When choosing a new (or second-hand) appliance, always look at its condition and energy rating. Here at Midlands Projects, we’re committed to helping our customers on their sustainable journey and will always source the most energy-efficient option from our range of commercial catering equipment.
Find out more about our sustainability practices.
Don’t Overwork Your Oven
Whether you have a gas or electric oven, they each come with their pros and cons when it comes to energy consumption. Consider switching to a combi oven which can save space, cook lots of food simultaneously and save up to 50% on your energy bills.
Wash Up Your Water Consumption
Water consumption uses a lot of energy and is costly to waste. Ways you could limit your usage is checking if your ware-washers are being stacked correctly: overloading could result in items not being cleaned correctly and having to be washed again. Whereas underloading is a waste of water which could have waited until the washer was full. You could also use steamers for cooking, which require less water than traditional boiling.
Maintain Your Cleaning Standards
An essential and easy solution to your energy issues is simply looking after your appliances. Install daily, weekly and monthly maintenance schedules that include cleaning and reviewing your equipment. This is your chance to spot any indications an appliance is underperforming and therefore consuming more energy.
Find The Light With Energy-Saving Light Bulbs
Energy-efficient light bulbs are a quick and easy win which can potentially reduce your energy bills by up to 90%. You can also include timers and sensors so lights switch off automatically when needed, and you should be educating your staff on the importance of switching them off too.
Use Knowledge As Power
Change comes down to awareness, and by training your staff on how to correctly use and maintain your kitchen appliances you can all make a huge difference. Provide appropriate solutions such as recycling stations to support your staff, as well as reviewing your menu to see where items can be cooked together and energy can be saved.
Don’t Waste Any More Energy
Reviewing your energy efficiency can be time-consuming but it’s worth investing in to futureproof your business. For additional support, our expert team is on-hand to answer all your queries.
Flexible finance agreement that’s tailored to you
At Midlands we know a one size fits all approach doesn’t work for commercial kitchens, so your finance agreement is tailored to your budget and timescale. Our agreements are flexible, meaning that your manageable monthly payments can be set to suit your business needs.
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