Last week, we began the discussion of energy usage. In this climate, many people are cutting energy usage for environmental, personal, and financial reasons. Now, let’s get to it.
Energy usage on Thanksgiving:
This upcoming Thanksgiving, Americans are anticipated to use three hundred fifty gigawatts of electricity to cook turkeys. Just to put that into perspective, that is the entire world’s nuclear power capacity in 2012. As everyone sits around the table and gives thanks to their family and friends for making the meal, consider the energy usage it took to make it.
If you are having at least twenty-five guests over, it is time to invest in a thirty pound turkey. In fact, the average size turkey purchased for thanksgiving in 2019 is thirty pounds! In 1960, the average turkey was only around sixteen pounds according to the Wall Street Journal.
The facts:
According to Better Homes and Gardens, most turkeys will take hours to cook. The internal temperature should be at least one hundred seventy degrees Fahrenheit in the breast and one hundred eighty degrees Fahrenheit in the thing because it is dark meat. For a large twenty to thirty pound turkey, you should a lot at least four hours for turkey baking time at three hundred fifty degrees Fahrenheit.
Also, consider that this baking time will most likely heat up homes in Central Florida. Your AC will be working a bit harder to keep the temperatures cool in your home. Let’s hope for cool weather, so we can pop open our windows and cool off naturally.
Of course, turn off your AC when you open your windows for extended periods of time. This will contribute to cutting your energy usage down. It is not only great for the environment but also your bill.
Just to bake the turkey alone, the energy will run you around $2 because of the twelve kilowatts of electricity usage. We cannot only consider the energy usage of cooking the main protein. Americans commonly make ham, baked mac and cheese, green been casserole, roasted carrots, mashed potatoes, and multiple baked desserts.
Really, all of these dishes would need to be added up as well. However, if you are purchasing fresh fruits to make your pies and baking the pie shell from scratch, you are cutting the plastic usage. Store bought items may seem quicker and easier, but in the long run, the will make an impact in our landfills.
Cutting energy usage and minimizing your footprint:
In addition, the gas used to go from store to store in preparation days can truly amount to a large carbon footprint. Consider checking your recipes ahead of time to avoid driving to the store five times. Purchase the ingredients from the store using your reusable shopping bags while you’re at it. On the day of the great feast, carpool to the locations.
This will also cut down energy usage, just in other ways. Lastly, having all the of special people in your life in one house cuts down energy usage elsewhere. Everyone mindfully trying to cut their energy usage will remember to turn off or adjust their AC before leaving their own home.
Thank you for visiting for a fun holiday energy usage article. We hope you enjoyed it and invite you back next time to return to our regular scheduled blogs. See you next time!
Make an appointment today to schedule any last minute electrical issues. Happy Thanksgiving! Time to prepare for Christmas. We will be sure to share ways to cut Christmas energy usage such as ordering presents online in specific ways.
Staff Writer
