Avoid preheating the oven unless your recipe specifically calls for it.

With the exception of breads, cakes, cookies, pastries, and other flour-containing ... read full tip

Avoid preheating the oven unless your recipe specifically calls for it.

With the exception of breads, cakes, cookies, pastries, and other flour-containing products that may need to rise, preheating is unnecessary for many baked dishes-especially if the food requires more than one hour of cooking time.

If preheating is suggested, never preheat the oven for longer than 10 minutes.

If you cut the preheating option the next time you bake a non-bread dish, you'll save about 1.25 kWh of energy. If you bake three times per week in an electric oven, your energy savings will equate to about $20 annually.

If 10 percent of U.S. households made their next oven-cooked meal in a non-preheated oven, the total amount of energy saved would equal nearly 13 million kWh-enough to bake more than 1.7 million pot-luck casseroles.

Department of Energy
Wisconsin Public Service