Cook by solar production

ard123en

I'm on nights this week as I'm at home during solar output have been trying to provide cooked meals with minimum energy

Monday was good production so made Bolognese in the slow Cooker was enough for two days lucky as Tuesday was dire for solar

Today is good so doing a whole chicken in the halogen oven and still exporting

Any other tricks like this people would like to share would be great

EricMears

Perhaps part-cooking an evening meal during the afternoon so it needs much less imported electricity later on.

pinnks

Cook in bulk when producing solar, freeze portions and microwave to eat. 5 minutes microwave is much cheaper than cooking again from scratch irrespective of whether the sun is out or not

Martyn1981

pinnks wrote: »

Cook in bulk when producing solar, freeze portions and microwave to eat. 5 minutes microwave is much cheaper than cooking again from scratch irrespective of whether the sun is out or not

Pop the frozen meal in the top of the fridge the night before so it defrosts and saves the fridge from using leccy.

Merlin139

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Pop the frozen meal in the top of the fridge the night before so it defrosts and saves the fridge from using leccy.

Also take the item out of the fridge about an hour before you cook it to bring it up to room temp. Less energy used by microwave to heat it up.

pinnks

Indeed - both go without saying...

Kernel_Sanders

If you don't have an electric travel kettle then boil a full load in a 2.2kW beforehand if you have the mid-day full sunshine required (this time of year). Even if only warm when you come to cook/make the tea, it'll have given you a good head start. (I sometimes make use of vacuum flask).
Use a solid hotplate (if you have one) for simmering and turn it down/off if the Sun goes in. They are excellent at retaining their heat whereas induction etc. is only suitable in unbroken sunshine. When you've served the veg etc. put water into the pan so that it picks up the residual heat for cleaning.
Microwave cooking is always more efficient when you have no solar but it should be noted that an e.g. 800W unit doesn't use 800W continuously. It'll fluctuate between (typically) 1100 W , 1450W, zero W and double-digit W, so a full oven could be just as efficient if you just have enough electricity to cover it, or a gas oven if you don't.
I sometimes use my breadmaker as an oven because it has a bake-only setting. In the heating season, I can place it where I most need the warmth so none of its 650W gets wasted.

pinnks wrote: »

Indeed - both go without saying...

Well actually, no....

Merlin139 wrote: »

Also take the item out of the fridge about an hour before you cook it to bring it up to room temp. Less energy used by microwave to heat it up.

But more energy required to replace that drawn from the room
Fridges and freezers just move heat back and forth between them and the room, so what you gain on the round-a-bouts you lose on the swings.

silverwhistle

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

Use a solid hotplate (if you have one) for simmering and turn it down/off if the Sun goes in. They are excellent at retaining their heat whereas induction etc. is only suitable in unbroken sunshine.

You can buy heat diffusers for induction hobs which serve a similar function and enable non-induction pans to be used, as well as for their heat retention - I sometimes use the induction on minimum and use them for warming bread dough in bowls. I bought mine in Italy where they were cheaper - but they are generally available. Mine are from a company called Frabosk.

Just to add that yesterday I had to put batch prepared lasagne in the freezer anyway, so took out a box of ice to make room. That got put in the fridge which I had to open anyway, so in certain circumstances you can use your refrigeration with energy saving in mind. :-)

Today the clouds are so thick I'm just going to have to take the hit on buying in electricity!

Kernel_Sanders

silverwhistle wrote: »

You can buy heat diffusers for induction hobs which serve a similar function and enable non-induction pans to be used, as well as for their heat retention

I didn't know about those. It probably won't persuade me to buy even a single 'stoved' induction as it would be no different from my current hotplate....unless they enabled a large frying pan to be totally in contact with the heat. The three advantages of induction are safety, speed and the fact that little energy is wasted when your house is already warm enough (e.g.because it's the summer).

On an editorial note, why shouldn't it be refridgeration?

EricMears

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

On an editorial note, why shouldn't it be refridgeration?

"Fridge" is the exception - the 'd' has found its way into the word to reflect how it's usually pronounced (and possibly to distinguish itself from a similar word without the d ). Refrigerator and all its other derivatives stem from the latin root 'frigi-'

ahw23

If you already use your slow cooker but are sometimes unable to switch it on at the "right" time (especially if you want to capitalise on solar when you are out) it might be worth getting a cheap timer switch, then leaving the SC plugged into that and "on" with the timer set to actually start it at the right moment. Thus you can start your evening meal during daylight hours even if you have been out since before sunrise. Actually, we also use it for porridge, but that is less helpful here as during the times of year you most want a hot breakfast, it won't be sunny at the time it's cooking. You might also want to look at hayboxes or insulated pans (e.g. Mr D's thermal cooker, kuhn rikon durotherm, wonder bag).