What to use, why? When? Where to look? How to make those decisions...

I keep looking for this or a variant.

How do you determine what you do and why?

I have my oven self-cleaning right now. We make bread for the neighbors for Christmas and have for > 20 years, so it's a tradition. I always clean the oven before the Christmas bake.

So, it occurred to me that I haven't used the noxious chemicals to clean the oven in > 12 years. The self-cleaning feature on my current oven runs for 4 hours.

Where would I look for the environmental impact of running my oven that long vs. using the nasty chemicals? I know I can look up my oven's electrical usage, that isn't the issue. How do you find something comparable for the oven cleaner?

Where would I look for alternatives which might work as well without the chemicals?

Etc., etc.

Comments, ideas, discussion welcomed. I'm just brainstorming here!

I don't want this to come off as too smart-ass of a reply... but one solution is to just not clean your oven at all. Sure, if you have a lot of buildup on the bottom then take a scraper to it and wipe it out.
I've just never felt my oven was dirty enough to have any effect on what I'm cooking. There's a pizza stone living on the bottom rack that catches anything that might find its way down that direction, and it is much easier to take that out for cleaning than clean the oven.

But to answer your question- You could easily find a bio-based product to clean with that wouldn't be super nasty. I'd like to think that a few paper towels in the trash has less impact than the energy required for a bit stinking 4 hour self-clean... unless your power comes from renewable sources.

Jennie, An easy way to tell how much electricity a person would use in a given time is to take a ready at the electric meter, then start the oven.  When the oven is finished its cycle takes another reading.  This will not be exact because a person's home will have other electrical items running so maybe take a normal 4-hour reading to compare.

I have always cleaned my oven with baking soda since it acts as a scouring powder.

When my oven gets a runover or spill I heat the oven up at a high setting to burn it then clean it with baking soda when the oven is cool.

This thread has some helpful links:

https://permies.com/wiki/112675/pep-nest/Manually-Clean-Oven-PEP-BB

And this one offers several suggestions:

https://permies.com/t/11965/permaculture-home-care-cleaning/purity/organic-clean-oven

Let us know if you figure out the impart that a self-cleaning oven costs you.

I think the variables and measurements for each possible option are almost unknowable as to make the comparison very hard to pin down.

What was the source of the bottle for the cleaner?  How do they make each ingredient, how is it sourced/shipped/manufactured?  Times a dozen more things...

vs.

How does the electricity get made that goes to your house?  What's the impact of shipping the coal/natural gas/solar juice to the transformer?  What part of making the power plant, solar panels or windmill is your share?  Times a dozen more things...

I wish things like this were easier to find out.  Good luck!

Jennie Little wrote:I keep looking for this or a variant.

How do you determine what you do and why?

I have my oven self-cleaning right now. We make bread for the neighbors for Christmas and have for > 20 years, so it's a tradition. I always clean the oven before the Christmas bake.

So, it occurred to me that I haven't used the noxious chemicals to clean the oven in > 12 years. The self-cleaning feature on my current oven runs for 4 hours.

Where would I look for the environmental impact of running my oven that long vs. using the nasty chemicals? I know I can look up my oven's electrical usage, that isn't the issue. How do you find something comparable for the oven cleaner?

Where would I look for alternatives which might work as well without the chemicals?

Etc., etc.

Comments, ideas, discussion welcomed. I'm just brainstorming here!

Once a year does not cause damage!

Don't bother, what you are saving here is negligeable. Purchasing 1 kg of fresh vegetables from other continent might be many times more polluting.