Block oven vent to save energy

[California98Civic]

A new thread to discuss this quote from my refridge painting thread:

Originally Posted by ecomodded

I blocked my ovens vent hole a few years ago with no issues besides a more economical oven.

The vent is a 2" diameter vent pipe that leads from the oven roof to under the element drip dishes.
I press fit a piece of tin foil over the pipe hole. Do at your own discretion , I can say my oven has not been damaged. I estimate the vent hole causes about 30% more energy consumption , as the heat loss is continual.

That's a big savings. We cook a lot at home in our gas oven/stove, so I have three questions: got any pictures? electric or gas oven? how did you arrive at 30% savings figure?

[ecomodded]

Have a look under your stove tops drip trays, on my stove its below the left rear elements drip tray. It is a steel vent tube 2" in diameter that joins the inside of the oven to under the elements , A direct Vent. Have a look at your oven roof , you will notice a vent / hole.


My number is purely a guess , I do not care to test it , it works good enough.

The hole is tin foil capped from the top , its a easy reach under the element tray.

I notice a lot of heat was heating the back of the stove top when using the oven and while cleaning the trays I plugged the vent hole. The stove top no longer turns into a burn hazard , keeping the heat inside instead of 24/7 venting all the heat from the moment you try to heat the oven all the way threw the cooking process.

Anyone could test heat up time and on off cycle duration with & without the vent covered and see what savings there is.

I feel confident in my guess


edit: Electric household oven stove , I know the common oven stove combo's have the vent tube.

[Frank Lee]

As a single I find that I use my toaster oven for 90% of my cooking; the stovetop and nuke doing the rest. Last time I fired up the "real" oven was to do a T-Giving turkey. Not only is there a tremendous electricity savings, the toaster requires no preheating and is virtually as fast as the nuke.

Also when I boil stuff on stovetop I use a frying pan as the cover for the pot; better contact to the element and less heat loss out the top. In fact for pasta I bring the water to a boil, dump pasta in, put pan on top, and turn burner OFF. 6-8 minutes or so later I've got al dente noodles.

[Cobb]

Not sure blocking vents for any appliance that is in use is a good idea. Part of the cooking process is reducing the moisture content of the food and if you are like me, I cook by smell more than anything. Most fire and smoke alarms works on similar principles they look for or smell the smoke when there is fire.

I agree with Frank as usual, you dont need a big honking oven to toast break. You can get a small toaster or toaster oven at walgreens for 20-40 bucks. For just warming up cold stuff I just use the microware. No, dont even think of blocking the vents to a microwave, there stuff in there that needs to be vented.

I put the item in as soon as I turn the oven on vs wait for it to warm up. I also cut the oven off early and let the residue heat finish cooking the food.

[RedDevil]

It is not just moisture that you need to get rid of... some of the fumes are flammable.

+1 on cooking with residual heat; keeping the heat on shorter than prescribed but leaving it in the oven for longer. No more burned stuff with a cold heart.

[Goldenstate]

Several years ago my microwave oven stopped working. I had noticed it was always cold near it in the winter, warm in the summer and I could hear the neighbor's dog barking real well all year long. Also significant dust in the area. When the externally vented microwave oven was removed from the wall, I discovered the vent baffle door was bent during installation and was always at least 50% open. I could not believe the shoddy construction but there it was in front of me. I blocked off the vent and purchased an internal vent microwave. The dust problem is gone, the heat and cold issues are no more and the dog still barks but I do not hear him as well. Energy bills have went down but with all of the other modifications to dual pane windows, sun screens and weatherstripping, it is impossible to quantify the savings of the internal vented microwave oven.

[Cobb]

I guess we need to clarify if we are talking about the vent to the atmosphere and the vent to the inside of the kitchen? I was referring to the one to inside the kitchen.

Ive been in homes that have a hood that vents outside and back into the house with a filter in it. This includes gas and electric stoves. Not sure why one is one way vs the other?

[oil pan 4]

Sounds good as long as its not a gas oven.

[Cobb]

I had a gas oven with 2 pilot lights and one was out. I smelled gas one day I was cooking. I had set it and forget it while I was doing other things. I started to smell gas as I had sat in my recliner to take a break to head back to the kitchen to check on my cooking. BOOM!!!!!!! The door tothe oven flew open, the windows, door, walls, celling, etc all made a crack, crunch noise and I felt a whoosp of air pass by me. I was glad I was sitting down.

I called the utility company and they rushed right out. Thats how I found the pilot light issue. They still claimed however it wouldnt of exploded the unit.

[Berniebee]

I'm a big fan when it comes to saving energy, but blocking oven vents is not helpful.
First of all the energy savings is nowhere near 30%. While the back burner does get hot, (If your electric stove has coil type elements, the vent is typically at the right rear element.) so does a lit candle. In other words, only a little bit of high temperature energy is lost.

Secondly, the oven vent system allows a little airflow to happen within the oven. Why is this neccessary? To avoid temperature stratification. Stratification happens because hot air rises. The oven air separates into layers of hot air at the top, cooler air at the bottom. Stratification means uneven cooking of your roast, and plays havoc with bread baking. Venting allows a small amount of airflow, which stirs the air and reduces stratification.

Thirdly, a blocked vent will mean your oven temperature will be lower than you expect, again because of the hot air rising/stratification issue. The oven temperature sensor is near the top of the oven. With stratification, the sensor "feels" the hotter air near the oven top, while the middle and lower areas of the oven can be a lot cooler.

So if you're bread doesn't come out nice one day, check to see if you left a frypan on the rear burner of your electric coil stove. Aha, stratification!