Restaurant equipment uses thousands of dollars worth of energy every year.  Running this equipment is essential to your business, but it can also be a drain on profits if not managed properly.

Reduce idle times. Cooking equipment like broilers, steamers, and fryers all take time to heat up for optimal use.  Because your kitchen staff is usually more concerned with food preparation times than energy efficiency, they tend to leave equipment running during  down times to avoid being slowed down by heat up time.  Obviously, you also want to minimize food prep time, but striking a balance between time and energy use is easier than you might think.

Things like broilers and connectionless steamers don’t take very long to heat up, so shutting them down during even short lulls can save you money.  Ovens and fryers can be reduced to an idle temperature that uses less energy than constantly maintaining peak cooking temperature.  Newer fryer models even offer an automatic idle temperature feature.  And warming cabinets are often left on overnight, wasting energy.

Draw up clear guidelines on when equipment should be powered up, when it should be powered down, and when it should be left idle, then take the time to train your staff on how to follow the guidelines to your expectations.  Follow up this training with some enforcement in real time (i.e. when the line is busy cooking) to really drive home how important effective equipment management is to you.

The cycle of training and enforcement will be an ongoing one, but over time you should see a direct benefit in the form of reduced energy costs.

Utilize efficient cooking strategies. Using energy hogs like salamanders or broilers is necessary to cook and serve a quality product.  That doesn’t mean you have to use the least efficient weapons in your cooking arsenal all the time.  Evaluate how each menu item is prepared and devise strategies to employ the most efficient equipment in your kitchen as much as possible.

For example, steamers, convection ovens, griddles, and microwaves are more efficient than ranges, broilers, standard ovens, and salamanders, so if you can substitute one for the other without compromising the quality of your product, do so.  Whatever strategy you devise, put them down in a set of guidelines and train accordingly.

Perform regular equipment maintenance. Simple parts on cooking and refrigeration equipment break down or degrade over time from constant use, reducing energy efficiency and equipment performance.  Usually these parts are so easy to replace you can do it yourself:

Door gaskets.  The constant opening and closing of oven, steamer, and refrigerator or freezer doors leads to wear and tear on the gasket that helps seal in heat or cold.  Replace these gaskets as they become worn to reduce leaks.

Thermostats. The thermostat on your freezer, refrigerator, or fryer can lose its calibration or wear out, meaning the machine isn’t operating at optimal temperature.  Check thermostats regularly by using a thermometer and recalibrate or replace them as needed.

Check pilot lights and clean burners. Pilot lights are convenient but also represent a constant use of energy in your kitchen.  Make sure they aren’t using more energy than needed by checking them regularly.  If the flame is taller than a couple inches or yellow in color, adjust the flame until it’s small and blue.  Also clean oven and range burners regularly and replace burners that have worn out to maximize their efficiency.

Train kitchen staff.  Implementing the tips above sounds good in theory, but unless you train your staff to think about energy efficiency, these strategies will remain just a theory.  Set idle time and shut down procedures for all your equipment to minimize their energy use.  Train head staff to check for bad door gaskets and thermostats.  Make sure full racks of dishes are going through the dishwasher instead of half full or mostly empty ones.

Most importantly, get your staff to understand why energy savings are important, and incentivize them to act efficiently.  Naturally, the incentive program you devise in your restaurant is going to vary, but some sort of reward for helping enact and enforce the guidelines you have set down is a great way to point out good examples. 

Some effective rewards might include a day off work, a cash reward, or a gift certificate.  Anything to give you an excuse to gather your staff, point out someone who has been following your energy efficiency program well, and reward them in front of everyone else.

Buy Energy Star rated restaurant equipment. Every time you replace old equipment in your kitchen, you upgrade your energy efficiency, so do so as quickly as possible.  When shopping for new equipment, look for Energy Star ratings.  Most restaurant equipment has annual energy usage statistics.  Use this information to compare units and purchase the most efficient one. 

No matter what, new equipment is going to be more efficient and perform better than old equipment.  Often the annual energy savings from new equipment will recoup the cost of purchasing it within a few years.

Also check for rebates from your local, state, or federal government for purchasing energy efficient equipment.  Anything that helps you offset this expense will mean the new piece will be paying for itself that much faster.

Carefully calculate capacity. One of the most common mistakes restaurant managers make when purchasing new equipment is buying too big.  Ice machines, refrigerators or freezers, and dishwashers are big energy users and are the most common units where this mistake is made.  Of course, buying too small is just as bad, and that’s why it’s important to accurately calculate your production needs.

Start by analyzing peak demand.  Once you know how many people or how many meals you serve per hour at peak demand times, you can better analyze what size equipment you need.

However, you should also take into account future growth.  Most restaurant equipment, if properly maintained, should last 5 – 10 years.  In that time your business should grow as well, meaning peak demand 5 years from now is going to be more than peak demand right now.  In general, overestimate equipment capacity by 10% - 20% to make sure it can meet your needs over the entire lifetime of the unit.