The Toaster Oven and Energy Efficiency

Lately lots of people are trying to "green" their lives and consume as little energy as possible, whilst still maintaining the quality of life they have become accustomed to. The toaster oven can help the average home cook to achieve this lofty goal. On average, a counter top toaster oven only uses half as much energy as a full-sized oven. When you couple this with the fact that toaster ovens warm up more quickly so that they don't need to be on as long, the energy savings really start to add up.
If you are unsure if it is worth buying a new appliance to save a little on energy, start a home cooking log. List what you are cooking and for how long. See how many of the items could have been cooked in a toaster oven. This will give you an idea of how useful a toaster oven will be in your kitchen, and show you how often you could be saving energy.
If you decide to buy a toaster oven, keep that food log in mind when deciding on the size you want. Often well-meaning cooks are tempted to buy a small oven to keep energy consumption as low as possible. But remember that if the toaster oven you choose is too small too cook most of your food, you'll be using the energy-hogging full-sized oven more often. A better option is to put some thought into which size of toaster oven best fits your particular culinary lifestyle.
When contemplating buying a toaster oven for energy savings, insulation counts big time. In general, the more expensive toaster ovens will have better insulation than their cheaper counterparts. This means less heat can escape and the unit will need less energy to operate. However, even a cheap counter top toaster oven will use less energy than a normal full-sized oven. So if you can't afford a top of the line toaster oven, don't worry. You will still reap energy savings, although those savings will not be as substantial as they are with the high-end models.
By virtue of name alone, you would expect a toaster oven to be the best option when making toast. But if it's energy efficiency you are seeking, this is not the case. A counter top toaster oven will almost always use more energy to toast bread than a regular toaster does. So use the toaster oven to replace your normal full-sized oven for day to day cooking tasks and stick with your toaster for toast.