When it comes to sustainability and diet, what you eat is much more consequential than how you cook. But, an easy and cheap way to reduce your energy consumption while cooking is to get an outdoor TOASTER OVEN!

Though estimates vary, a toaster oven uses about 1/4 of the energy that full-size ovens require (and maybe even less), and savings are maximized when used in convection mode and over longer cooking cycles (most energy goes to the initial pre-heating).

The little guys have a max load of 1,200-1,500 kilowatts, whereas the big daddies can draw as much as 4,000-5,000 kilowatts. This difference means that toaster ovens both use less energy and radiate less heat into the house, which matters most in the summer!

In Arizona, we cook with our outdoor toaster oven year-round. It fits basically everything smaller than a turkey. Since we use it most often for vegetable dishes, tofu, quiche, bread, and pizza, all of which cook under an hour, we usually consume no more than 1 kilowatt-hour (kWh) per use (meaning 1,000 watts of power for a 1-hour time period). But even this is probably an overestimate. Pre-heating the toaster oven is the major energy draw over a cooking cycle, per an Energy Star report, so I’d venture we use more like 1/3-1/2 of a kWh.

Looking at our hourly energy usage, it’s obvious when the regular oven is used (minimum 1-2 kWh spike), but the toaster oven doesn’t even register to the eye, consistent with a four or fivefold energy savings. Saving a kWh or two might not sound like much, but over a year it adds up to several hundred kWh, equivalent to a week or two of all household energy use.

If you want to triple-down on this sustainability hack, look for a gently used toaster oven on Facebook Marketplace or at the Goodwill (ours was $6!). Oh, and finally, roast tofu in it!