I will often use my bread machine when I only need one loaf.
Sometimes I will even hand mix the dough for sourdough bread (which
my machine cannot do since it takes days), let the machine run
through the mix cycle and then add the ready to bake dough to let the
machine do the baking. I may be wrong, but it seems to me the machine
uses way less energy to make one loaf than my big oven does. I'll
admit I'm not crazy about the big square loaf the machine gives me,
but it still tastes good and slices up fine for sandwiches.
Suzanne