Commercial kitchens are notorious for being expensive to run, especially those delivering high volumes. School kitchens are a perfect example of this. They have to deliver a high volume of cooked meals every day, on very tight budgets. Balancing quality and consistency with energy efficiency and waste is a very difficult choice, and often quality is sidelined in favour of saving money. But it doesn’t have to be like this! The good news is that there are numerous ways to improve efficiency while still delivering top-quality and healthy food to students. And that is by making your kitchen more energy efficient.
An energy-efficient commercial kitchen is not only economically sound, but it is also more environmentally conscious and therefore also more sustainable in the long run.
So, how do you achieve it?
Here are a few tips to answer the question: how to make your school kitchen more energy efficient.
Equipment
Energy Audit: The largest energy consumption in the kitchen will come from your equipment. You need to know which appliances consume the most electricity and gas, and use the results of your tests to assess which items of equipment are essential and which are superfluous.
Replacement: Where possible, replace old appliances with newer ones. Bear in mind that, generally speaking, electric equipment is more efficient than that which runs on gas, and electricity is less expensive than gas. Plus, and particularly in the last few years, there have been huge technological advances, making commercial electrical equipment more energy-efficient. Induction units, A-Class energy efficiency refrigerators, fryers with integrated oil filtration, high-speed ovens and dishwashers with heat recovery are just some examples of equipment designed to make your kitchen more energy efficient.
Maintenance: Maintain appliances regularly and effectively, via a service contract if necessary. Old filters, dirty components, leaky doors, badly calibrated appliances, freezers with ice build-up, these are all sources of energy waste. Energy waste applies to all equipment in the kitchen- cookers as well as refrigerators, hot holding, hot water boilers and ventilation systems. A well-maintained appliance lasts much longer than a neglected one, therefore saving you money in the long run.
Usage: Monitor how appliances are used. Are fryers, grills or ovens left on when they’re not in use? Are refrigerator, freezer and oven doors kept open for unnecessarily long periods of time? Are taps left running between uses? With some thought and some pointed staff training, these are some of the habits that can be cut out to make your kitchen more energy efficient. Timers are also much underused - ventilation, ovens, and lighting can all go on timers so that they are switched off automatically when they’re not needed.
Batch Cooking: This is a very good way to save on energy. Instead of switching on equipment repeatedly, you can cook a batch of portions for reheating when required. There are plenty of appliances that are designed for batch cooking. Combi ovens, blast chillers/freezers, bain maries, sous-vide and more. School kitchens have an advantage over restaurants: they have a narrow menu but a large number of portions to prepare, so batch cooking is ideal for school cooks.
General Waste
As well as reducing energy consumption and waste in a school kitchen, it is also useful to reduce the use of other resources. For example, you can lower your water consumption by using low-flow pre-rinse sprayers and a new model of glass and dish washers with improved water usage. You can reduce food waste with the use of a Pacojet; if you’re not familiar with this piece of equipment, you really should get to know it! Leftover herbs? Make oils! Leftover vegetables? Make sauce bases! Leftover bread? Make gravy thickener! Leftover fruit? Make sorbet!
Layout And Workflow
A well-laid-out kitchen will help maximise energy efficiency. Equipment should be grouped together as much as possible. A heat source next to a refrigerator will force the refrigerator to overwork. A cooker next to a grill, on the other hand, will increase heat transfer.
It’s not just equipment whose energy use needs to be maximised. Think about your staff. A well-laid-out kitchen with reduced distances between sections will provide a better workflow, avoiding your staff from having to walk long distances between fridges, sinks and cooklines. The results? Maximised productivity and improved staff morale. With well-made stainless steel furniture, designing a good workflow is easier than it seems – the furniture can be designed and built to fit around optimum equipment placement.
Ventilation
Every commercial kitchen requires ventilation. Not only is this expensive, it is also a heavy source of energy use, and it is generally on throughout cooking. Fans can often be left on when not required, purely because kitchen staff can be too busy to remember to switch them off. Luckily, there are demand-controlled systems that can increase or restrict airflow according to need, automatically. Fans will then work exactly according to the required speed, leaving staff freer to focus on the cooking process. Like all the other equipment, a well-maintained ventilation system will also be more energy efficient and last longer. It is essential to maintain ductwork, fans and to change filters to hoods and canopies regularly.
Lighting
It doesn’t seem obvious at first, but lighting is actually a key part of what happens in the kitchen. From the moment the first person goes in to the last person leaving, the lights are always on. They’re on and they’re bright because good quality lighting is essential to what could otherwise become a dangerous and unhygienic environment.
Most school kitchens will have strip lighting, fluorescent or incandescent bulbs, usually because buildings are old and the lighting just hasn’t been updated. But, they’re some of the most expensive lighting systems to run, and bursars will be well aware of that when they pay the school’s electricity bills. A much more energy-efficient and therefore also economic solution is LED lighting. It is safe, bright and a lot cheaper to run as LEDS use a lot less electricity to achieve the same level of lumens. LED lighting also lasts longer – no more regularly blown light bulbs or tubes!
Another useful lighting tip is to install motion sensors. Rather than depending on staff switching off the lights, let the lights switch themselves off when staff leave.
Why Come To Kitchen Solutions?
Since 2014, we have been designing kitchens in both primary and secondary schools. A large part of our work has and continues to be for the Council, which means that we regularly have to look at making savings for the client while maintaining the highest food quality and hygiene standards. We are very conscious that energy is a high cost of running a school kitchen. We have very up-to-date knowledge of our equipment across cooking, refrigeration and warewashing, and we will always quote for equipment that will create the most energy-efficient commercial kitchen. Call us now to help you design or upgrade your kitchen! If you would like to know how to further improve your kitchen efficiency, please get in touch.
Image source: Canva
