I bake quite a bit: cookies, muffins, brownies, its a soothing and comforting task. Turning the oven on, especially at high temperatures for long periods of time means it takes a long time to cool down. Having some extra heat in the kitchen isn’t always a bad thing (especially when you don’t have a heat vent in the kitchen) . Since we’ve paid to heat the oven up we figure we may as well re-use the excess heat by letting the hot air escape.
Great point, plus if you cooked something yummy like chocolate chip cookies your whole house will smell great – free aromatherapy!
I’ve been doing this for a few years! Living in a cold climate like Canada means I spend 6.5 months heating my home. Every penny counts!
We have been doing this for years. My mom still does this, but when our little ones are around, we have to retrain her not to do this so there won’t be burned little fingers. . .
Good thinking on safety!
This is something I’ve done in the past too, but I have to wonder how much of a difference it actually makes to open the oven door. Of course the heat is going to escape into the room faster, but the leftover heat has to dissipate eventually until the inside of the oven is the same as the ambient temperature.
Wouldn’t this mean that the overall impact on your energy bill would be the same no matter if you open the oven door or not?
I don’t think it matters if you let the heat out or not. The heat will dissipate into the room eventually.