What are you doing to lower your energy bills?

[Deleted User]

It's almost certainly wrong.

It would be true if:

• The slow cooker is 160 watts
• The oven is 2.5 kilowatts
• The duty cycle on both, while in use, is identical.
  

So are you suggesting that using a slow cooker is more inefficient than the electric oven?  i.e. To cook say some brisket or some beef joint?  The suggestion now is that it is irrelevant whether you use an electric oven or the slow cooker.  Please enlightem me - not being sarky just need to know where folk are coming from.  Got to say this is not my experience but I am happy to be enlightened and perhaps save money on my cooking £££.

QrizB

DerwentMailman said:

It's almost certainly wrong.

It would be true if:

• The slow cooker is 160 watts
• The oven is 2.5 kilowatts
• The duty cycle on both, while in use, is identical.
  

So are you suggesting that using a slow cooker is more inefficient than the electric oven?  i.e. To cook say some brisket or some beef joint?

I'm not suggesting that (although it might or might not be the case). I'm saying that the infographic is quite specific about how long you can run a slow cooker for, for the same amount of electricity as you'd use running your oven for an hour, and that it's unlikely to be correct for any given combination of appliances and settings.

Even if it is correct, the infographic makes no claim about how much electricity it takes to cook a dish in either appliance (although I guess it's trying to imply that you'll use your slow cooker for less than 16 hrs to cook a dish that would take more than 1 hr in an oven).

Exactly how much electricity it takes to cook an equivalent dish in a slow cooker vs. an oven (or vs. a pressure cooker on the stovetop) will depend on the appliances and would need to be measured. No, I'm not offering to do this!

Comparing these two vaguely-related recipes (here, here) it seems that beef stew in a slow cooker will take 4 hrs but in an oven 2 hrs, so it's likely the slow cooker has the edge for that one.

[Deleted User]

QrizB said:

DerwentMailman said:

So are you suggesting that using a slow cooker is more inefficient than the electric oven?  i.e. To cook say some brisket or some beef joint?

I'm not suggesting that (although it might or might not be the case). I'm saying that the infographic is quite specific about how long you can run a slow cooker for, for the same amount of electricity as you'd use running your oven for an hour, and that it's unlikely to be correct for any given combination of appliances and settings.

Even if it is correct, the infographic makes no claim about how much electricity it takes to cook a dish in either appliance (although I guess it's trying to imply that you'll use your slow cooker for less than 16 hrs to cook a dish that would take more than 1 hr in an oven).

Exactly how much electricity it takes to cook an equivalent dish in a slow cooker vs. an oven (or vs. a pressure cooker on the stovetop) will depend on the appliances and would need to be measured. No, I'm not offering to do this!

Comparing these two vaguely-related recipes (here, here) it seems that beef stew in a slow cooker will take 4 hrs but in an oven 2 hrs, so it's likely the slow cooker has the edge for that one.

Forget the infograsphic I gave the link to - perhaps not very helpful.  So perhaps my personal experiences might be better to report.

 I haven't got the measuring devices to accurately work out how much electricity each of the appliances use BUT I am certain that using an electric oven is almst certainly the most expensive way to cook meat, poultry etc.  A slow cooker (esp a smaller 2 -person) is undoubtedly cheaper IMHO and the food comes out far tastier than done in a conventional oven (another added benefit IMHO).  A pressure cooker (even an electric one) reduces cooking times of everything and is great at tenderising meat.  So taking stewing steak/ beef joint might take up to 2 hours in a conventional oven, 30 mins in a pressure cooker and maybe 4 hours in a slow cooker (and don't forget you often bung in the veg at the same time reducing hob costs in addition to oven costs).  My daily energy records always show that heavy days on electricity are invariably accompanied by lengthy spells of oven cooking time - anecdotal for sure I agree..

Going back to the OP,  they asked what people were doing to lower their energy bills.  I still stand by the creed in my house that if something can be done in the electric slow cooker, electric pressure cooker or even an electric air fryer compared to using a normal electric oven then this is what we now do in addition to many other things mentioned in this thread.   

NorfolkCanary

Short answer.....nothing new, not because I'm wealthly, but I'm doing the same as I always have done.

Coming from a single person relatively poor household I was brought up to turn things off at the wall when not in use as a child, thought this was always common sense?

Heating was always programmed to be on certain times of day only and to an adequate temperature, during the winter months only, otherwise wear socks/jumpers. Hot water was always on programmed via timer for morning and evening times once back from school for bath, washing-up after dinner etc..

I'm not now going to go out and splurge on a slow cooker or air fryer to save a few pennies vs. using the oven.

I'll be getting the dishwasher fixed to save on water vs washing-up by hand and having a couple of water butts installed to save using tap water for watering.

wild666

What I do know is that a pressure cooker uses far less electric or gas than doing things on an electric or gas hob or oven. At the moment I am making some beef and onion pies and the pressure cooker will cook the beef to very tender in just over 15 minutes and I will make as many pies as I can with the 1Kg of diced beef. The downside to this is the individual pie maker that will consume more electric than anything but as I expect to make at least 10 pies, maybe more, and freeze them it will be worth the expense compared to buying pies at the supermarket that are mainly little meat and mostly thick gravy.

UncannyScot

Just joining on the thread here...

Like most folks, I'm trying to cut back where I can and reduce energy consumption. My usual £40 per month to the Leccy and £40 to Gas will have to increase to £60 for Leccy and probably same for Gas due to the huge hikes in prices but I put the heating off at end of March and it wont be back on again until November so it's just a minimal top-up each month. I'm on a PAYG smart meter... and due to my financial situation cannot move away from that with my current provider (BG). I'm looking at moving to the 8 armed aquatic provider as soon as it's viable / possible to do so...

I find that my electric cooker uses a lot, whether it's the hobs or the oven... I've never liked it TBH but it was all I could afford at the time and I would love to get rid of it but I'm stuck with it for now as can't afford to replace it with something more efficient just yet...

What I'm doing just now is using a combination of a single burner gas camping stove and the microwave to cook with most of the time.

All appliances that do not need to be on are switched off when not in use. So, I'm hoping to see my consumption go down and reduce my costs as much as I can without it causing a too much of a reduction in my well being, comfort etc.

Astria

[Deleted User] said:

It's almost certainly wrong.

It would be true if:

• The slow cooker is 160 watts
• The oven is 2.5 kilowatts
• The duty cycle on both, while in use, is identical.
  

So are you suggesting that using a slow cooker is more inefficient than the electric oven?  i.e. To cook say some brisket or some beef joint? 

Have you tried cooking some brisket or beef joint in a pressure cooker on a gas hob?

It can be cheaper than an oven, and faster than a slow cooker. I can't comment on whether it would be cheaper or more expensive than a slow cooker however. The meat is still quite moist and flavorful though - just make sure to put enough liquid inside!

oldagetraveller1

Trying to cut down drastically on consumption, yes.

Thermostat now set to 25 degC from 30 degC. Heating only on for 23 hours from 24 hours. Using my 40 years old floor standing gas boiler to heat the uninsulated hot water cylinder instead of the immersion.

I think the biggest saving has been replacing all the 120W incandescent lamps with 100W rated equivalents.    

Robin9

oldagetraveller1 said:

.....

Thermostat now set to 25 degC from 30 degC. Heating only on for 23 hours from 24 hours. 

WOW you must have been cooking at 30 deg.  - even 25 is hot.  Keep turning that down to about 17.

Also those hours down 2/3.

Swipe

Robin9 said:

oldagetraveller1 said:

.....

Thermostat now set to 25 degC from 30 degC. Heating only on for 23 hours from 24 hours. 

WOW you must have been cooking at 30 deg.  - even 25 is hot.  Keep turning that down to about 17.

Also those hours down 2/3.

Got a feeling that it was a wind up post