I was thinking that what's in my kitchen might be interesting. I like to cook but have a small kitchen in an off-grid house. What you find in my kitchen may surprise you.

First, a bit about my house. It is round. The kitchen is built as a long, relatively narrow but curved room. It is about 20 feet long but only between five and six feet wide. The difference in width is because the outside wall in the continuous curve of a 25-foot diameter wall but the inside wall is three straight sections. It may be hard to visualize but it is harder to take a photo.

Along the outside wall is a countertop interrupted by the stove and the sink. The countertop is 24 inches deep on one side of the stove, 18 on the other. Across from the 18 inch countertop, at the widest part of the kitchen, is a chest-type refrigerator. Above the refrigerator is a shelf for a microwave and other shelves built into the wall.

Ok, enough about the layout. That should give you the general idea. Below the countertops is open storage that, someday, will probably get a curtain front. In any case, that space is used for storage of everything from appliances to pots and pans. There is also a stacked set of plastic bins for fresh fruit and vegetables. Additional shelves are on the end walls and built into one of the straight walls. These are used to store food containers and spices.

What do I mean by food containers? While there are a few cans (mushrooms, for example as they are not available fresh here) and some bottled goods such as honey and molasses, most of the containers are for bulk food. That includes wheat berries, rice, beans, flour, TSP, and such.

On to the appliances which is really what I wanted to talk about. The first surprise is that everything, with the exception of the stove, is electric. The stove is a normal four-burner plus griddle and oven stove whose fuel supply is a propane tank located on the outside of the house.

The refrigerator, while electric, runs on 24 volts DC. Our energy storage is a set of 24 volt batteries and a chest-type refrigerator is more efficient than an upright. While the unit was expensive (about $1600), as it is in use all the time, it was a reasonable investment.

All the other appliances are typical 120 volt AC types that you would expect to find in any on-grid kitchen. The big consideration here is that they either need to be more energy efficient than alternatives or not be in operation that much of the time. Let's look at each one individually.

The microwave is nothing special. What's important here is that we see it as a way to heat something up but not something to use to cook things. This is not really a change for me but it does mean being aware that it is not the right device for a lengthy cooking job.

For those lengthy cooking tasks, we have two devices: a crock pot and a rice cooker which also has a "soup" setting. The crock pot is perfect for cooking up a batch of beans or making a pot of soup. Being a low energy drain over a longer time is also more efficient when you are drawing down the batteries rather than just using excess energy from the solar panels.

Use of the rice cooker is limited to "extra energy" times. While it is efficient, consumption is high. Cooking rice on the gas stove when we don't have extra energy is the norm.

We have an electric coffee maker. Yes, high-draw but not for a long time. We are careful to just make as much coffee as we want to drink now and not leave the unit on in "keep warm" mode. Note that what we don't have is a toaster. The griddle makes a great toaster.

There are also a couple of other low-use but typical leftover appliances. A waffle maker, espresso machine and knife sharpener. All of leftovers from an on-grid house (and two are actually leftovers from when I lived in Costa Rica). Nothing special here—just mentioned for completeness.

The remaining electric appliances are a Zojirushi bread maker, a Bosch Universal Plus kitchen center, a SoyaPower soy milk maker and a Blendtec Kitchen Mill. Each has its own justification.

I had a bread maker before. The reality is that unless you have a place nearby with decent bread (I don't) or have a lot of free time (I don't) you either need a bread machine or need to decide not to eat bread. The selection of the Zojirushi was based on reading a lot of reviews. It's a great machine. Energy-wise, it is started in the morning to run during the extra energy time. Unless you are going to bake multiple loaves, it will use less energy than the gas oven.

The Bosch kitchen center was a space decision rather than an efficiency one. The unit is not in use for that much time so, while it is not less efficient than what it replaces, it does use a lot less space. It is:

• a mixer with both traditional beaters and dough mixers
• a food processor
• a blender

It could also be a grain grinder but I already had the Blendtec so I didn't bother to buy the grinder attachment. I also don't think it would be as good at this particular job.

The SoyaPower is an electric alternative to making soy milk on the stove. It is efficient and saves a lot of time. It only gets used one to two times a week so being electric is not a big issue. If I was going to make a lot of soy milk—for example, to make tofu—I would use the gas stove.

The Blendtech means that we can buy wheat berries in bulk and grind them fresh when we want to make bread. This eliminates the need for storage for whole wheat flour (and a trip to Managua to buy it) and means fresh ingredients. It also can be used to grind other things such as soybeans. Energy usage is a non-issue as one to two minutes of operation produces enough flour for a loaf of bread.

Would I change anything? I had looked at 24 volt microwave ovens but they are extremely expensive and are not likely to produce any significant energy saving. The one item that I would prefer in 24 volts is the crock pot. I was initially more concerned here because I figured the inverter would not be running 24/7. In practice, it is (for a number of reasons including computer equipment running all the time) so this is really a non-issue.

My only concern is that pretty much everything (except lights and the refrigerator) depend on the inverter. While these inverters are very reliable, it would be nice to have some sort of backup other than having to run the gas backup generator. The current inverter is 3500 watts, more than we ever use but it offers a peak capacity such that power tools (the radial arm saw being the best example) will start properly. Thus, just purchasing a smaller inverter for emergency backup probably makes the most sense.