Energy Cost of a bread machine

Andy_Hamilton

Maggiesunshine wrote: »

Hi there Andy and Jenny .... Jenny has been fab- lots of great tips ...(I had to take first 254 back last week as it was so noisy and rattly and I let ladies in the help kitchen listen to it and they agreed ...) anyway I exchanged it for another and made a loaf - first one without using a mix!!! I made the sandwhich loaf overnight .... and I used 20 ml less water - but it was the white loaf and I must admit although it was great - tasty - soft - it was not very big and I wonder if it was cos I used 20ml less water ... I have only just read what Andy put - for brown bread .... maybe I misunderstood what Jenny was telling me .... sorry Jenny if I did!! Is that rule of thumb only for brown bread then?? Thanks you very much. Maggie:j

The white loaf recipies are spot on so follow them to the letter making sure your yeast is fresh (not close to use by date/ stores in sunlight etc).
If you still have problems after making one to the orginal recipie try adding half a teaspoon extra of sugar (and possibly the same amount of yeast extra).

The starch content in wholemeal flour is lower than it was once was so you reduce the water if the loaf caves in.

FairyElephant_2

Hiya,

Does anyone who uses a breadmaker have one of those plug-in thingies that you use to work out how much electricity something is using? (sure they have a proper name but don't know what it is!).

In a rare OS moment, DH wanted to know how much my HM bread costs per loaf. I can do the ingredients bit easily enough, but don't have an idea what the BM is costing me to run.....has anyone worked it out already?

Thanks!

FE

PS I have a Panny 255, in case anyone has worked it out for that machine,.......

ascot64

I worked it out for my Panny 255 and now I can't remember. Have a look in the back of the instruction booklet as it tells you how many kw per hour. I think it was about 0.5. But I am sure that only would apply to the baking stage.

I think I assumed it used 1kw ie one unit of electricity for the whole cycle so roughly 12p ish.

Pink.

Hi FairyElephant,

There's an earlier thread where some people have done costings so I've added your thread to it to keep the replies together.

Pink

FairyElephant_2

Thanks Pink - if I'd searched for 'energy' rather than 'electricity' I might have found it - DUH!!!!!!!!!

dmillich

Just to confirm general message about energy costs of breadmaking.

Using Panny SD 255, making 910g large loaf - wholemeal/multigraint malted on a 5 hour recipe - and then using inbuilt timer to give around 12 hours total "plugged-in" use. Monitored from the start of the process with an energy monitor - final figure shows that the breadmaker consumed 0.4 KWh in producing this loaf.

Note that mixing stages etc. consume very little energy - it is the baking that takes the juice - but as the breadmaker is more efficient at cooking a single loaf that putting it in a domestic oven then you get a good figure for the final cost of making one loaf.

The cost of electricity to mix and bake a large loaf is thus around 5p - depending on your energy supplier, tariff and usage. (I take 11p per kWh - + VAT - as a rough average cost at present prices.) I probably spend more on the 3 heaped tbspns of mixed seeds etc. I add to the mixture for each loaf.

Denzil

Kilty_2

Thinking about finding a cheap/free 2nd hand breadmaker to have a go at baking my own - one concern though is am I going to end up with a massive electricity bill?

I assume they're reasonably power hungry and will be turned on for a few hours in order to bake a single loaf?

I know "are breadmakers really moneysaving" is discussed a lot - but normally just the cost of ingredients. Apologies if this has been asked before.

katieowl_2

I dithered for ages wondering the same thing before I took the plunge.

My breadmaker is a Kenwood - the big stainless steel one (I got it using doubled up clubcard vouchers when they had small electrics in the deal)

I recently bought one of those plug in gadgets that measure electricity consumption by your appliance.

It calculated that the electricity for a loaf start to finish was 5p. Bargain. My bestest ever kitchen purchase. Not only is the bread lovely, but if you keep the ingredients for a basic loaf always in stock it keeps you from nipping to the supermarket just for bread, where you may be tempted to buy other stuff!!!


Kate

Kilty_2

Wow - didn't realise it would be that cheap

Keeping an eye on a maker on eBay - it's just a cheap Cookworks one (£40 in Argos currently) but it's local and "only used twice" for a lot less

lizzyb1812

I have a Panasonic SD253. Cost to me of a standard 4 hour bake is under 3p. More relevant to you is that it was 0.31kwh - multiply that by your kilowatt hour cost to get the cost for you on that particular machine. I would say that using 5p max as a rough guide would do though.