Three ways to cook without the oven that could slash your energy bill – including air fryer and slow cookers
HOUSEHOLDS are looking for way to cut costs – and looking at alternative ways to cook could help you slash your energy bill.
Families have been using energy-saving hacks since electricity prices went up from around 17p per kWh last winter to 34p per kWh now.
Among those hacks, homeowners have been switching out certain vampire appliances like the oven – but what are the alternatives?
Shoppers have been loving air fryers and slow cookers as they appear to be key money-saving appliances.
A typical electric oven uses a 2,100W heating element, according to the Centre for Sustainable Energy.
This means it costs roughly 71p for each hour your oven is on.
So if you used your oven for an hour every day for a year, this would add a whopping £259.15 to your bill.
But, of course, how much any appliance costs depends on which model you have and how often you use it.
Here, we look at three cheaper alternatives to cooking using the oven – and explain how much you could save.
Slow cooker – 11p an hour
A slow cooker could be a good investment as there are several benefits such as hand-off cooking and is designed to bring out the flavour of foods and make some meats tender.
It’s estimated that the average slow cooker uses roughly 1.3kWh over eight hours of cooking time.
Uswitch has told The Sun that using a slow cooker for eight hours costs 92p under the current Energy Price Guarantee.
This works out at around 11p an hour – 60p cheaper per hour than an oven.
Different recipes may also require different settings with some being set to as low as 60°C which will use less electricity than a meal cooked at a higher setting such as 149°C.
Air fryer – 34p an hour
Air fryers are the new kitchen essential, but it’s useful to know how much they cost to run.
The kitchen gadgets grill and bake in a fraction of the time compared to a conventional oven – so you’re saving time as well as money.
As with any appliance, a newer model is likely to be more efficient, and be cheaper to run than an older version.
The power of an air fryer is measured in watts, and this determines how much energy it uses – and the cost of using it.
But the more powerful the appliance, the quicker it will cook your food too.
A 1,000W air fryer costs just 17p to run for 30 minutes and 34p to run for an hour – 37p cheaper than an oven.
This could work out an an annual saving of around £73.
Microwave – 5.7p per ten minutes
Running a microwave will cost you around 5.7p per ten minutes of use.
That depends on how you use it of course, and the model – this estimate is based on one with 1,000w power.
But Energy Saving Trust says that a microwave is more energy efficient than a traditional gas or electric oven.
That’s because microwaves only heat your food and not the air space inside, which means they use less energy to cook your dinner.
It’s always quicker and its smaller size (compared to an oven) means that the heat is more focused on whatever’s being cooked, it advises, so opt for this appliance whenever possible.
Which? previously revealed the cheapest way to cook popular food including chips and jacket potato.
Plus, we spoke to energy experts at USwitch to find out the cheapest way to cook a meal.
We have also listed here how much appliances can cost you as you move to save more money around the house.
Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing money-sm@news.co.uk