Running costs for an aga

whitehouse35

Can anyone give me an idea of how much an electric 3oven aga would cost to run per quarter? Our kitchen is very cold and the cooker needs replacing so it would seem a good idea to combine the two problems but not if the running costs are high - the initial outlay is bad enough!

Pincher

Have you actually tried to search for "Aga running cost"?

Cut and pasted:
Is your Aga cooker expensive to run?

No, in fact its quite the opposite. Aga Cookers are actually designed to conserve energy and fuel. Once the ovens and hot plates reach their optimum temperatures, the AGA unique storage system requires very little fuel to maintain these settings. Approximate weekly running costs are:-

• Natural Gas Two Oven: 425kWh
• Natural Gas Two Oven with water heating: 601kWh
• Oil Two Oven: 40Litres
• Oil Two Oven with water heating: 60Litres
• LPG Two Oven: 60Litres
• LPG Two Oven with water heating: 84Litres
• Electric models:220kWh

Aga cookers don’t produce as much heat as is first presumed. They are very well insulated to release as little heat as possible which means they only output the equivalent heat produced from 10 – 12 100watt light bulbs.

A._Badger

Pincher wrote: »

Have you actually tried to search for "Aga running cost"?

Cut and pasted:
Is your Aga cooker expensive to run?

No, in fact its quite the opposite. Aga Cookers are actually designed to conserve energy and fuel. Once the ovens and hot plates reach their optimum temperatures, the AGA unique storage system requires very little fuel to maintain these settings. Approximate weekly running costs are:-

• Natural Gas Two Oven: 425kWh
• Natural Gas Two Oven with water heating: 601kWh
• Oil Two Oven: 40Litres
• Oil Two Oven with water heating: 60Litres
• LPG Two Oven: 60Litres
• LPG Two Oven with water heating: 84Litres
• Electric models:220kWh

Aga cookers don’t produce as much heat as is first presumed. They are very well insulated to release as little heat as possible which means they only output the equivalent heat produced from 10 – 12 100watt light bulbs.

Even if these figures are accurate, that means a twin oven Aga running on oil will cost around £23 a week at current oil prices!

I have a dismantled one in my garage (it came with the the house). A couple of years ago I worked out the cost of running it if I had it assembled and fitted. It was absurd then. It is even more absurd now.

Agas might have made sense once. Today they are just lifestyle trophies.

Cardew

Apart from the huge running costs for consumption of gas and oil, there is the servicing costs to consider - these also can be eye-watering!

pleasedelete

Haha at the costs listed

I have a 4 door oil one. My gas bill was £3k a year- now dropped to about 2.5k. Don't use heating from April to October so aga is sole cost in the summer. The aga is at least £30 a week.

When we had oil in needed 4 tanks a year for that and the heating. Needed less than 2 tanks when we had just heating. Oil prices vary load to load.

grahamc2003

Cardew wrote: »

Apart from the huge running costs for consumption of gas and oil, there is the servicing costs to consider - these also can be eye-watering!

Several years ago, after paying an annual £70 quid odd for a basic service if nothing else was required, and when the engineer was in and out in about 20 mins, I decided to do it myslef. Mine's oil fired, and is simplicity itself to service. The main problem is carbon deposits in the oil channels feeding the oil to the wick - a two minute job to scrape out. Also, dead easy to make your own wicks, instead of buying the real expensive thing off aga, justy needs a minute to cut out the channels, copying the old wick.

Having said that, the running costs vs the benefit for me just got too high a couple of years ago. Anyone who thinks these are cheap to run is in cloud cuckoo land. All I miss is the aga toast!

Pincher

Haven't got an Aga, but if I won £161million, will certainly have one just to see how it works.

The electric one might seem to be a money pit initially, but if it can store enough heat to cook three meals a day using Economy 7 electricity, without day time top up, it could be attractive for electric only households, who obviously cook with peak rate electricity otherwise.

BERBY

This may be of interest if looking to reduce your Aga running costs and comfort levels. Cornish Cooker Conversions have developed a new conversion that seems to solve a great deal of the Aga drawbacks including the running cost

HappyMJ

BERBY wrote: »

This may be of interest if looking to reduce your Aga running costs and comfort levels. Cornish Cooker Conversions have developed a new conversion that seems to solve a great deal of the Aga drawbacks including the running cost

To wait 30 minutes for the hob to heat up and 2 hours and 20 minutes to preheat the oven defeats the point of an AGA. I would suggest that someone install a cheap freestanding electric cooker and only use the AGA in winter only when the waste heat can be used in the property.

grahamc2003

HappyMJ wrote: »

To wait 30 minutes for the hob to heat up and 2 hours and 20 minutes to preheat the oven defeats the point of an AGA. I would suggest that someone install a cheap freestanding electric cooker and only use the AGA in winter only when the waste heat can be used in the property.

Or rip it out and replace it with a dual fuel modern range for the same as the conversion cost. I reluctantly have to admit that the advantages of our AGA are now outweighed by its disadvantages. Having a nice warm kitchen 24/7 is a little wasteful, hence the AGA lout image. Ours has been off in the summer ever since we bought this place - never understood why people suffered a roasting kitchen in mid summer! After a few oil bills, I also turned the temperature down, to try to get them lower - they were high enoiugh in those days even at 13p/litre!

The conversion would certainly result in lower running costs, even using quite a lot of full cost electricity whenever you'd want to cook anything. Also, the soul would be gone - it's the gentle heat and a warm kitchen which are the hallmarks of the AGA and why people congregate around them.

I always thought the Aga would make our house more saleable and worth quite a bit more. I'm not so sure it has that effect these days. We are witnessing the death of an icon imv.

Cardew

You have missed the whole point of an Aga - you aren't supposed to actually use them; they are a lifestyle statement!