Sustainable cooking appliance carbon calculator
The production of excess carbon threatens the environment and is now widely acknowledged as a major factor in global warming.
Sustainable cooking is about looking closely at ways of reducing the carbon produced by putting food on our plates.
It includes how our food is produced, buying locally and seasonally and eating less meat and more plants.
But one area has been largely overlooked.
What effect does our cooking choices have?
Cooking accounts for around 5% of the average households carbon production, but if you are a keen cook this figure will be higher.
You may consider this to be a relatively small percentage and that there is little to gain from making changes in your cooking.
But this would be to ignore the benefits of marginal gains which focuses on small incremental improvements.
When added together, these small changes can make a significant improvement.
A good starting point would be to know how much carbon you currently produce.
Do you know?
To be honest, most cooks have absolutely no idea.
But surely we should.
After all, cooking is an activity that most households do, every day, often several times a day.
To help, we have produced a nifty little calculator to work out the carbon contribution of typical kitchen appliances.
You can calculate the carbon content per meal and in a year.
Knowing where you are now will allow you to start the process of making those small changes which can result in big carbon reductions.
Carbon Footprint Calculator
Use this calculator by entering the appropriate data for a specific meal and appliance into boxes 1 to 4.
The carbon produced for this meal cooked on this appliance is automatically calculated in box 5.
Then enter how many times you have this meal in a week in box 6.
The annual carbon figure for this meal cooked on this appliance is automatically calculated in box 7.
Please note that these calculations are an estimate allowing for average appliance power ratings, conversion factors for kWh to kgCO2eq and thermostat cycle times.
Please get in touch if you would like to know more detailed information.
Carbon comparisons
Let us work through an example calculation to get an idea of the difference you could make through making these small changes.
If you roast fish in an electric oven at a medium heat of 180 deg C for 20 minutes plus 15 minute preheat, then this works out at 270gCO2eq per meal, and if done twice a week would be 28kgCO2eq in a year.
Now, if you change to grilling the fish instead at a high heat for 8 minutes plus 2 minutes preheat time*, then the per meal figure is reduced to 93gCO2eq, with an annual figure of 10kgCO2eq.
This is a reduction of 18kgCO2eq over the year.
According to European Environment Agency figures, this equates to driving 46 miles in a petrol car (at 392gCO2eq per mile), or running your central heating for nearly 3 days (at the UK average of 6.4kgCO2eq per day).
Run your own comparisons based on your own changes and see how much carbon you can save.
(* Hi-Grill eye level grills preheat time)
Author: Robin Gibson
AffiliateLabz
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Robin Gibson
16 Feb 2020Thanks. I’ll certainly try.
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Robin Gibson
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