Slow cooker - not as energy efficient as I thought

friendsrgreat

I bought a 3.5L Morphy Richards slow cooker with a ceramic insert. I was dubious that it was energy efficient as I've had a huge, ceramic one before that seemed to heat the whole kitchen. I did a meter reading last night before I put it on and again this morning. It seems to have used twice as much energy as I was expecting. 4-5KWh instead of less than 2. Can anyone recommend a slow cooker that really is energy efficient? I don't use non-stick or aluminium cookware, so the pot that comes into contact with food needs to be either stainless steel or ceramic.

friendsrgreat

For clarity, the wattage stated was 142-170 and I used it on low for 14 hours.

molerat

142-170w for 14 hrs would use  2 - 2.4 kWh.  What else was running ?

Modern slow cookers are a bit higher wattage than older ones, my trusty old Tower 2.5l from the 1980s runs at 80 / 105 so 1.1 - 1.5 kWh over that period.

Dahliaa

great discussion. I was also wondering about usage of slow cookers.
I have an Instant pot which can also work in slow cooker mode, but I don’t know what is is usage on slow cook mode.  

friendsrgreat

molerat said:

142-170w for 14 hrs would use  2 - 2.4 kWh.  What else was running ?

Modern slow cookers are a bit higher wattage than older ones, my trusty old Tower 2.5l from the 1980s runs at 80 / 105 so 1.1 - 1.5 kWh over that period.

I heated a panful of water from cold to boiling on an electric hob, which took about 5-10 minutes. My mobile phone was charging for a few hours. That was it.

coffeehound

So long as your SC is not one of the 'clever' digital ones, and is just a simple 2 or 3 settings with rotary knob, then: you might find a simple plug-in segmented timer would let you run it at a lower overall energy, e.g. like


Each segment is 15 minutes, so you could set it to be on for 15, off for 15.  Or on for 30, off for 15, etc.  As Molerat says they have got more powerful in recent years, and some would say too powerful, so this is a way to slow them down a bit.

Gerry1

No fridge, no freezer, nothing on standby?

friendsrgreat

Gerry1 said:

No fridge, no freezer, nothing on standby?

A fridge-freezer, yes. I forgot about that. Nothing on standby. I never leave anything on standby. My kettle was switched on at the wall, but not on. I recently moved in so I've been monitoring my electricity usage, and it's much higher since I've been using the slow cooker than in previous days.

Neil_Jones

Whats the model number of this energy hungry slow cooker?  The average 3.5 litre slow cooker uses about 1.3 kWh of electricity to power eight hours of cooking.

I wouldn't go down the route of a separate timer as its not designed for that, if it was it would be built right into the unit.

Just another thought, have you gas or all electric?  If you're all electric anything left on by accident or otherwise will increment the meter, including things like boilers, immersion heaters, fires etc.

matelodave

Have you done a similar meter reading overnight without turning the slow cooker on.

 Unless you know what your base load is (stuff like the fridge, freezer, router, TV, DVD player, SKY box and even the central heating - it's got a pump, possibly a control board and a fan) you cant just do a meter reading and think its the slow cooker.

As Molerat says, 170w for 14 hours =2.38kwh and even then it's likely that the thermostat controlled the temperature so it wouldn't be using 170watts continuously. If you really want to find out how much it uses then you need one of these - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Xpork-Monitor-Consumption-Analyzer-Calculating/dp/B08K7G4XCH/ref=asc_df_B08K7G4XCH/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=463215415376&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15729696617964760675&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006699&hvtargid=pla-1059153316306&psc=1 as it will just measure the consumption of what ever is plugged into it, like the slow cooker and not everything else that you've forgotten about.

Sailbad

I had one of the same slow cookers but sold it because it was so inefficient. It had no insulation and to thermostat. On all the time heating up your kitchen. It was good for stewing cheap cuts of meat but I think a pressure cooker would be a much better idea.