One cannot imagine a kitchen without a fridge or a cooker, or other electrical devices we use in our homes every day. But how do you go about choosing the one that suits you best, and is the most energy-efficient? What parameters should you pay attention to?

Find out what Elektrum Energy Efficiency Centre specialists recommend when buying and efficiently using a new fridge, dishwasher, cooker or kitchen hood.

Buying new, energy-efficient devices

One of the two ways to reduce your power consumption is to buy new, energy-efficient appliances, and the other is to change your habits using them.

When buying an electrical appliance, it’s important to look at its energy label, which offers valuable information about how much power and water the device consumes, how much noise it makes, its capacity, as well as other details. The energy label also contains information about the energy efficiency class of the appliance or how efficiently the appliance consumes power. The higher the energy efficiency class, the more efficient and high-quality the operation of the appliance is.

Note that until recently, the highest energy efficiency class was A+++. However, since 1 March 2021, a new energy label has been used for certain groups of appliances: lights and lightbulbs, fridges and freezers, washing machines, washing machines with a built-in drier, dishwashers, TVs and electronic displays. For these, the energy efficiency classes are on a range from A to G. For other groups of electrical devices, such as ovens, kitchen hoods, air conditioners, water heaters, these new energy labels will be gradually introduced starting in 2022, as soon as the respective EU regulations take effect.

Remember! The higher the class, the less power the device consumes, and the better the quality of its operation.

Buying a dishwasher

We recommend buying a dishwashers with an energy efficiency class that is higher than A, or as close to it as possible. These models can consume as little as 6 litres of water per cycle.

You can find the following information on the energy label of a dishwasher:

1. Model and make of the device
2. Energy efficiency class
3. Estimated power consumption, kWh per 100 cycles
4. Maximum number of place settings
5. Water consumption per eco cycle, litres
6. Eco cycle duration, hours: minutes
7. Noise level, in decibels, and noise level class

The capacity of dishwashers is measured in place settings, each consisting of a certain number of tableware items: three plates (soup plate, flat plate, desert plate), a bowl, a cup, a glass, a fork, a knife, and three spoon (teaspoon, tablespoon and dessert spoon).

The ideal option for 4 people is a dishwasher for 12 to 14 place settings. If your kitchen is small, or if you don’t use your dishwasher too often, choose a smaller model that can wash not 14, but 8, 6 or 4 place settings.

The operating modes of a dishwasher determine the duration of its cycle, the temperature, and the amount of water. Different ones are best suited for washing certain tableware: the gentle wash mode with lower water temperature is best for glasses, while a higher water temperature helps to wash greasy dishes. Whenever you wash your dishes in a dishwasher, choose an economical wash mode, which can save as much as half the water consumed as part of the cycle. For all details about available operating modes, check the model description for the specific dishwasher.

Reducing costs using a dishwasher in your day-to-day life

Dishwashers are very good at washing and drying dishes, provided that you put them correctly onto the racks, as the manual requires you to.

For efficient consumption of water and electricity, fill the dishwasher’s racks with tableware completely, instead of washing just a few dishes per cycle. If this is tough to achieve, choose a dishwasher with a single-rack wash function, or with lower capacity.

Most of the power consumption in dishwashers comes from heating the water, which is why you should use lower-temperature cycles for washing your tableware.

Keep in mind that if you use a dishwasher, you will consume much less water. And if you use a water heater for hot water, it will also reduce your power consumption.

Buying a new cooker

Induction cookers with a glass-ceramic surface are the most economical option. They consume 50% less power than cookers with metal hobs. An induction cooker is easy to use: as soon as you place a pan or a pot on its surface, and the sensors under it immediately react to the object, creating electromagnetic induction current, which quickly heats it up, while the surface of the hob remains cool.

Induction cooktops tend to have 1 to 4 hobs for cooking your meals. We recommend choosing the number based on how big your family is, and how much food you intend to cook at any single time.

For more about cooktops and their differences, see our cooker guide.

Using your cooker economically in everyday life

For better energy efficiency of your induction cooker, adjust its heating power as necessary. At first, use maximum power to quickly heat up your pan, or get the water in the pot boiling, but then reduce the heat to as low a level that still gets you the temperature you need for cooking.

Also, keep the lid (better if it’s glass) on pans and pots when cooking, so that the heat stays inside, and is efficiently used for cooking the food, and not your home, which really isn’t necessary in summer.

Buying a new fridge

We recommend buying a fridge with a higher energy efficiency class, because it will consume less power.

You can find the following information on the energy label of a fridge:

1. Model and make of the electrical device
2. Energy efficiency class
3. Estimated power consumption, kWh per year
4. Freezer capacity, in litres
5. Chilled storage section capacity, in litres
6. Noise level, in decibels, and noise level class

A critical factor in choosing a fridge is its capacity: larger-volume fridges consume the most power. Choose the capacity of your fridge based on the size of your family, the quantity of food you need, and how often you cook. If your previous fridge was half-empty all the time, maybe you should buy a smaller one. But if you want to keep seasonal foods in the freezer, buying a separate freezer unit is a good option.

We also recommend buying a fridge and a freezer with an automatic defrost function to prevent layers of ice forming on the appliance’s walls. The function will spare you the need to manually defrost the freezer and the fridge, and help the appliance work energy-efficiently, because if you forget to regularly defrost your fridge, its power consumption rises, with every centimetre of ice increasing it by 10%.

• Do I really have to change my old, but still functional fridge?

You should start thinking about buying a new fridge if your current one is at least 10 years old: the amount of energy it consumes can be up to 50% higher than what a modern fridge does.

• Factors affecting the power consumption of a fridge:

Set the fridge temperature to +5 °C, and the freezer temperature to -18 °C. For every degree unnecessarily below that, the fridge’s power consumption rises 5%. If the fridge has a temperature controller without specific temperature levels, you can check the temperature by putting a thermometer suitable for such temperatures in the refrigerator. Fridges, in which you can adjust the temperature of the fridge part and the freezer part separately, are particularly energy-efficient.

Install the fridge far from sources of heat, such as heaters, cookers and other appliances that emit heat during operation, and away from direct sunlight. We also do not recommend putting your fridge too close to a wall, in a corner of a room or inside a niche, as this will prevent the circulation of air, and increase the consumption of power. There should be 5–10 cm of free space around the fridge for air circulation.

Remember that you should only embed in kitchen furniture the kinds of fridges that are intended for it. By building in a stand-alone fridge, you will get a huge increase in power consumption. When selecting a fridge, keep in mind that built-in fridges consume about 20% more power than stand-alone ones.

Buying a new kitchen hood

Similarly to other devices, we recommend buying a kitchen hood with a higher energy efficiency class, for better operation and less consumption of electricity.

You can find the following information on the energy label of a kitchen hood:

1. Model and make of the electrical device
2. Energy efficiency class
3. Estimated power consumption, kWh per year
4. Airflow efficiency class
5. Lighting efficiency class
6. Grease filtering efficiency class
7. Noise level, in decibels

Power consumption is specified assuming that you operate the hood an average of 1 hour every day, and the built-in light, for 2 hours.

Remember that if you use an electric cooktop, you don’t need a very powerful kitchen hood: its power can be twice as low as that suitable for a gas cooker, resulting in less power consumption. If you have a gas cooker, then your kitchen hood should have a power of at least 400 m³, while even 200 m³ is enough for an electric cooker.

Install the cooktop and the hood as close to the ventilation shaft as possible, ideally no further than 3 m, so that the kitchen hood does not work inefficiently.

Keep in mind that the distance between the cooktop and the hood is critical: if you set it up too low, the air it picks up will be too hot, with bad consequences for the motor and the fan. If it is too high, the smoke will just flow past it, and not get extracted. The optimum distance is 60 cm for an electric cooker, and up to 75 cm for a gas cooker, depending on its power. Check the user manual for the hood to find the exact height, at which to install it.

It’s also critical to take good care of the hood’s filters: clean them regularly, because filters covered in grease aren’t as good at cleaning the air, which means that you’ll have to keep the kitchen hood on longer, and burn more electricity!

If you have more questions, please apply for a free online energy efficiency consultation!