Posted on 11/27/2019 3:54:11 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
This Thanksgiving, Americans will suck up 350 gigawatts of electricity--equivalent to the entire world’s nuclear power capacity in 2012--making turkeys.
So, while we spend time being thankful this Thursday as we gather around the dinner table with family and friends, we should take a moment to extend that thanks to the energy that will be consumed making the turkey and all the trimmings.
But you might be surprised to know that Americans consume far less energy on Thanksgiving than on just any old Thursday—despite the fact that turkeys take nearly all night in the oven to cook.
Thanksgiving by the numbers
Americans aren’t the only ones with a weight problem; turkeys are getting a bit too big for their britches, too. The average Thanksgiving turkey size in 2019 is 30 pounds! That’s one big bird, and more than double from the 13 pound average sold in the 1930s. The fact that turkeys have bulged into enormous proportions means that it takes longer to cook. A 30-pound bird (stuffed, or course, because who doesn’t like in-the-bird stuffing?) can take 6.25 hours to cook in a 350° oven. The unstuffed equivalent takes about 1.25 hours less time to roast.
The Electric Cost of Roasting Tom
We did the math, and the average electric oven (non-convection) of the 2000-2400-watt variety will chew through a little over 12 kWh of electricity to cook that tom for 6 hours. At an average cost of 13.3 cents per kwh for electricity in the United States, turkey cookers will pay about $1.60 for the electricity to cook their birds (a couple of pennies more if you keep peeking at it while its cooking).
All Together Now
Americans will consume a staggering 46,000,000 turkeys this Thanksgiving. At 12 kWh each, that’s 552,000,000 kWh—for a single meal.
(Excerpt) Read more at oilprice.com ...
Before dinner, all the travel of family members to destination, pre-dinner preparation and jocularity, watching football, dinner, cleanup, post-dinner activities, and desert plus cleanup.
The energy used makes bird cooking small potatoes.
Same here— when I did the cooking for Thanksgiving. All side dishes were prepared on Monday, and cooked onTuesday or Wednesday, and just reheated on Thursday. Then I realized it was almost like eating leftovers!!
Your wife is in Indiana and your girlfriend is coming over tomorrow...well, that’s just...peachy.
Ukrainian turkeys were released today. Might need to investigate.
Just ride 25 miles instead.
If they pay for their own energy Nd food, it’s no one’s business!
This makes sense. Most people are eating in larger groups than usual, and one kitchen gets most of the workout. When my parents hosted a family Thanksgiving that included aunts, uncles, cousins, grandchildren, they had over 30 people there.
Yeah...they taste BETTER...IMHO
They don’t take into account that a large Thanksgiving turkey is going to be feeding a large family gathering, who will thereby not be cooking dinner in their individual homes. Plus leftovers will mean that they won’t be cooking dinner Friday either.
The net effect will be an energy SAVINGS.
But...most of our dishes were made today...Wednesday. ..with some finishing tomorrow
Typically we get a 14 pound bird for a similar gathering, and have leftovers. The dark meat bones I put into a ziplock bag and freeze, to make a soup a couple weeks later. Any white meat goes into one or two ziplocks and frozen for a casserole later.
As Benjamin Franklin once said, "Fart proudly, for you are an American".
Ten cubic feet at STP.
The average size turkey is 30 pounds!?! WOW, that’s hard to believe.
I shop at Fry’s/Kroger, it’s a typical large supermarket. The biggest turkeys they sell are no more than 25 pounds.
The biggest turkey I could find last year was 23 pounds and it barely fit in my oven. This year the biggest Butterball turkey I could find was 22 pounds.
Google says 15 lbs for avg T G Turkey
Eh?
I would have to see the numbers before I would believe that one. Ours is 13 as there will only be six of us this year.
Maybe they are talking about the ones bought and served by restaurants and hotels.
Snore. Who cares ? Make more Gwh
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