The bulk of utility usage in most any type of residential institutional facility is the kitchen. Institutions like a long term care facility, college campus, primary or secondary school, and correctional facilities, are preparing meals for large numbers of people and operating for a good portion of every day. The foodservice equipment in a commercial kitchen requires several different utilities in order to operate; water, natural gas, electricity and even direct steam if the building has that capability.
With all those resources pouring into one department, most operations managers are driving energy efficiency and starting with the kitchen staff. We’ve pulled together this easy-to-implement list of tips that you can use for employee training to improve the energy efficiency of your commercial oven. These tips can be used for applied to all types of ovens, including commercial convection ovens, conventional ovens, deck or pizza ovens and even roll in ovens.
1. Minimize your preheating time prior to use
While it is important to preheat your oven prior to doing any cooking, letting it sit empty when it’s at temperature is a waste of energy. Know how long it takes to preheat your particular oven. There are some models with a rapid preheat functionality that can preheat in as little time as 10 minutes, but most will require 20 to 30 minutes. Just keep in mind that if your oven requires 45 minutes to an hour to preheat, you should clean it, and if that doesn’t work, you should schedule a service call.
2. Be sure hot air isn’t escaping the interior cavity via oven doors
If you do feel hot air coming from the oven doors, check the gasket to be sure it is in good condition. If it is, be sure to examine the hinges and tighten them if necessary. Depending on the age and amount of use that your commercial oven gets, the doors can come slightly out of alignment causing an air leak but not so much as to be difficult to open and close. Any air ‘leaks’ should be addressed immediately.
3. Glass doors are beneficial because you can see through them
That being said, if you have an oven like our customer favorite VulcanVC44GD Double Deck Gas Convection Oven with Glass Doors, don’t open the oven door to check on food. Keep the oven doors closed and check food through the glass door. If you have all steel doors, then they need to be opened, but not glass doors. You should also consider a temperature probe if you don’t have one to minimize the need to open the doors of your commercial oven to test the temperature of the foods you’re cooking.
4. Clean the interior lightbulb regularly
To fully realize the benefit of glass doors, it will be easier to see inside the cavity of your commercial oven if the light is clean and bright.
5. Periodically test the timer and thermostat for accuracy
Both of these features are designed to allow you to walk away from your oven to do other things in the kitchen. Make sure they are working properly to avoid a cooking disaster or even just a hiccup.
6. Allow for proper air circulation around food
For food to cook properly, it is important that there is room for the air to flow freely around the food so that the surface is evenly cooked. In a convection oven, you need to ensure that the air flow is not blocked and that the fan or fans in your oven is operating properly as the movement of air is what expedites the cooking process.
7. Do not over fill food pans
Look back at number six: over filling food pans is one way to restrict the air flow around the food. It will cause your foods to bake or roast unevenly causing some foods to be undercooked and others to be overcooked or burned resulting in both food waste and risk of food borne illness to your customers or residents. It is a good idea to fill your oven to capacity as that is the best way to optimize the energy used during that cooking session. If you are over filling food pans, you may need to review your capacity requirements and either buy an additional oven or upgrade to an oven with increased capacity to accommodate your needs.
8. For convection ovens, turn off the blower before opening the doors
The blower in your convection oven forces air to circulate inside the oven cavity to reduce cook time. Opening the doors with the blower on will actually ‘push’ the hot air out of your oven, making the oven work that much harder and inefficiently for temperature recovery. It will also make opening the oven door more uncomfortable.
9. Make sure the oven is level
If your oven is not level it can have an adverse effect on the foods your preparing including uneven cooking, similar to overfilled food pans. You can check that your oven is level by placing a torpedo level on the interior racks and then adjusting the levelers on the legs, as necessary.
10. Check food on the top racks first
If you are using a conventional oven, keep in mind that heat rises so be sure to check food on top first to avoid overcooked product. For convection ovens, the heat is more evenly circulated because of the fans, reducing the potential for uneven heat distribution.
11. Do not set thermostat higher than required
Contrary to popular belief, your oven will not heat up faster because you set it at a higher temperature. It will preheat at the speed it preheats whether heating to 375 or 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Make sure to tray all staff members who are using the ovens that they are not to set the thermostat above the required temperature for the current recipe.
While some of these tips seem like common sense, it’s still a good idea to post them and review with all staff members who will be operating the oven in your professional kitchen. Also, when it comes to energy efficiency, small changes can have a big impact because they accumulate over time. The oven is utilized every day in many foodservice operations and improving the efficiency of your commercial oven even a by a little bit can reduce your utility expenses.
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