"energy" news and stories

My mom likes to tell stories about how, when she was pregnant, she would always put her food in the microwave, press the "start" button, and run away as fast as she could so as to not irradiate the fetus.

Of course microwaves do not actually irradiate anything (even my mom knew that, on a rational level), but a lot of people still consider them vaguely evil. At the very least they don't enjoy the best reputation for producing healthy or delicious food.

But they may be better for the environment, at least in certain circumstances. As an interesting Slate story found, using a microwave for cooking small portions is much more energy efficient than using an oven. Making a single baked potato in an oven took 9.5 times as much energy as it did in a microwave; making four portions of baked potato in a microwave took 2.5 times the energy. The efficiency ratios are skewed depending on whether you have a gas or electric oven -- gas ovens produce fewer carbon emissions per units of heat than electric ovens.

Good to know, though until they make microwaves that can brown the top of a half-eaten casserole, I'm going to have to stick to my oven for certain reheating jobs.

How often do you use your microwave versus your oven?

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Your fridge consumes about 8 percent of a home's electricity, reports Planet Green, but there are plenty of ways to keep its energy use down - cleaning the coils, covering food, etc.

Here's a new one: install carpeting. A new book, Carbon-Free Home, suggests covering the fridge with insulation boards which are in turn covered with carpet or corkboard. Apparently this can reduce energy use by about 50 percent.

Check out the Planet Green site for the (very simple) four-step instructions. Or take a look at the Chelsea Green site for much more detailed directions. Neither site, however, suggest whether shag or pile would look better next to your ketchup bottle and Chinese takeout cartons.

Have any of you tried this?

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Wondering why your refrigerator and freezer or using so much energy? Follow some quick and easy instructions to keep these machines running more efficiently, even during a power outage.

Did you hear about Earth Hour, which happened last week? Everyone was supposed to turn out all their lights for one hour on March 29 in an effort to bring attention to global warming, and reduce their energy consumption a little. This is your chance to do a cooking version of Earth Hour, and join a blog event that can be fun and good for the planet.

Really, it doesn't even have to be about Earth Hour. This could be really fun. The blog event is called "Lights Out, Knives Out". The premise is that you turn off all non essential appliances, equipment, and lights to cook a meal, and to do this at least once a month. You can still cook with the oven/stove, of course, and anything you think is necessary.

The point is to prepare the meal using as little energy as necessary, then to share your experience with everyone else. You can get all the details here. It sounds like a lot of fun: cooking by candlelight and preparing food by hand.
It would be an adventure for those of us who are dependent on the food processor!

[Via Is My Blog Burning]

Energy Fiend has a great caffeine content database that can give you the exact amount of caffeine in just about any drink you could want to know about. It is a great resource because, although drinks containing caffeine make it clear in the ingredients list, they don't list the actual amount of caffeine that they contain. Coca-Cola, perhaps taking a cue from E.F. is hoping to make getting this information easier for consumers by adding labels to all of their products indicating their exact caffeine content.

Such labels are already found on Enviga (8.33 mg/oz.) and Full Throttle (8.81 mg/oz.) and Coca-Cola Classic (2.83mg/oz.) cans will have it by May, with the rest of the beverage lineup - including Diet Coke (3.75mg/oz.) to follow over the rest of the year, though the labels will not be put onto the bottles and cans of Coca-Cola products sold outside of the US.

For comparison, drip coffee (black) has 18.13mg caffeine/oz., Red Bull has 9.64mg/oz. and regular black tea has 5.88mg/oz.

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