Around 3% of the average home’s energy use comes from cooking. And with energy bills still high, it’s worth thinking about what appliances you use when you cook your meals.
Depending on what you’re cooking, some appliances are more energy efficient than others. This helps lower your energy costs as well as your CO2 emissions.
So whether you use an air fryer or an oven, we’re here to help you save energy and money in your kitchen. Here is our energy experts’ findings on how much it costs to use some common cooking appliances.*
So, which is cheaper to run: an air fryer or an oven?
When cooking the exact same meal, air fryers are cheaper to run. But which appliance you need depends on how much you’re cooking. Choosing the right appliance and help you avoid wasting energy and help you save money.
Typical cost to cook a 600g chicken breast: £0.13 in Great Britain (GB) and £0.21 in Northern Ireland (NI).
An air fryer works like a small conventional fan oven. Because they’re small, air fryers are often cheaper to run than an oven for the same meal.
In this example, it would cost £0.18 in GB and £0.29 in NI to cook the same portion of chicken in an electric oven. This makes the air fryer an ideal choice for preparing smaller amounts of food for one or two people.
Top tip: Try not to open the compartment any more than necessary to avoid letting out heat and wasting energy.
Typical cost to cook a 600g chicken breast: £0.18 in GB and £0.29 in NI.
Ovens are generally bigger than other cooking appliances, so they use more energy to heat up. This means a typical electric oven can be the most expensive cooking appliance to run for individual portions of food.
However, their larger size means you can fit a lot of food in at once. This makes an electric oven better for batch cooking or cooking for a large group. Using your oven in these situations could be the best value for money.
Top tip: Avoid opening the oven door any more than necessary while the oven is on to keep hot air inside and reduce wasted energy.
Typical cost to cook a 400g ready-made lasagne: £0.03 in GB and £0.05 in NI.
Instead of heating the air around it, your microwave directly heats the food. This means your microwave will cook and reheat food quickly, so its cost per use is likely to be lower than many other cooking appliances.
Top tip: Batch cooking in a full oven and then reheating portions as you need them in the microwave can help keep your energy bills down. Batch cooking is a popular tip: our Facebook audience are big fans!
Typical cost per use: £0.10 – £0.24 in GB and £0.16 – £0.18 in NI.
Using the hob is typically quite cheap. Generally, you won’t need to have a hob on for long to prepare meals such as pasta or an omelette.
Using a gas hob does produce more direct CO2 emissions than an electric hob, though. So if you’re just using it to reheat food, consider using a microwave instead.
Top tip: Cover your pots and pans with a lid when you’re cooking to keep heat in and reduce wasted energy. This also helps manage condensation in your home.
Typical cost to cook 3.6kg home-made beef stew: £0.31 in GB and £0.50 in NI.
Slow cookers are designed to cook food gradually over a long period of time. This makes them a convenient way to cook if you have a busy schedule.
They’re also a great way to make several meals’ worth of food in one go.
Top tip: To save energy, avoid leaving them on longer than necessary. If you’re going to be out for longer, use the ‘low’ setting.
This depends on whether your hob is powered by gas or electricity.
If you have an electric hob, you’ll save energy and money by boiling the water in the kettle first.
If you have a gas hob, you’ll use less energy but you won’t save money. This is because the unit cost of electricity is higher than gas.
For more tips, find out how you can save energy in the kitchen.
*Appliances’ cost per use is calculated using lab testing for specific foods.
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Last updated: 3 September 2024