Cooking and energy use - best methods to reduce costs?

Northern_Wanderer

Hi,

Looking for suggestions of how to reduce energy use/ costs for cooking please.  Planning a kitchen refurb soon. Currently using an electric hob, table top oven and microwave.

Getting quite p'd with the oven as it is fine for small items but takes longer time than it should to cook bigger things and suspect costs far more to cook than it should. I will get an induction hob with new kitchen. Am considering to buy one of the multi-cooker/ air fryers now which have slow cooker and pressure cooker included. I'm considering what sort/ size of electric oven I should get for new kitchen as I probably won't require a large oven very often.

What is the cheapest way to cook in terms of energy use? Is a multi-cooker a cheap way to cook? Does a slow cooker/ pressure cooker use less energy for a meal than the hob? How do I calculate energy usage of an appliance for a meal? I prefer to only use microwave for defrosting or heating, not cooking. Am trying to defrost in fridge as well.

Any tips appreciated. Not sure if this is correct forum.

Xbigman

I have had 3 different mini ovens. All of them needed the temp set about 10c higher than I'd use in a full size oven and I always allow an extra 5 or 10 minutes cooking time (based on experience of the item being cooked) to get things right. However, they have all been 1500w and do cut in and out so they are cheaper than a 'proper' cooker. I've confirmed this with an energy monitor. 
My set up at the moment (I'm single) is a mini Oven, single stand alone induction Hob, Toaster and 1.5 litre, 900w Air fryer. No Microwave. Even with that there are savings to be made. Boil eggs in the same pan with something else. Have meals that use either the mini oven or induction Hob, rarely both. As I'm on Agile I have cold meals between 4pm and 7pm. I never cook between those times.

If you are not single then a mini Oven is really not powerful enough because the more you put in it the more power you need to cook with it. I do put in larger joints of meat at Xmas but allow for much longer cook times. 1500 watts will never cook a full size joint of meat as fast as a regular oven. I have found that slower oven cooked meat is nicer so I see this as a positive rather than a negative. On the flip side a full size cooker is designed for family use and not one person meals. Its simply over powered.

My mother had a pressure cooker and swore by it. I've never used one. I have used a mini oven/grill type thing that packed up after 3 weeks so I returned it. It was ok as an oven but I found the grill took ages to cook anything.

I've wondered if a George Foreman style grill might be a money saver but my diet wouldn't suit one so I've never tried it.


Darren

Northern_Wanderer

It's true, I suspect the mini oven is not reaching the temp it says, and that is clearly more noticable with a larger item being cooked. I do turn it up more for bigger items but it can honestly take an hour extra to cook something and then I get Hangry! lol.

I suspect that altering the way we cook is a biggy here. I'm trying to get into one pot cooking and I tend to cook extra to freeze. Been thinking about a slow cooker and an air fryer for a while, then I saw the Ninja Foodi which does practically "everything". I'm assuming the Ninja must be well insulated to handle the pressure cooking aspect, so should save electric. It seems like people who get the Ninja stop using their main oven. I do have an old pressure cooker which I seldom use just because it's a learning curve but I'd like to eat more legumes. Ninja is very tempting although the spares are costly....Tefal do cheap spares for at least 15 yrs but a lesser all-round cooker. Ninja could save some space, rather than having an appliance for each job.

Maybe for the main oven I could get a built under dual oven, rather than a single large oven as surely heating one small oven costs less than heating the large one, but then I'd have the extra space option when required.

I dread surge pricing for main meals as I need warm food to heat my body as I am always cold.

peter_the_piper

Now we only cook for the two of us we bought an Air fryer. It does most of the things we cooked on the Neff and does use less lecci. Warming up, for a start,only take a few minutes. Also useful for reheating fried chicken etc if you buy too much. Just make sure you get one of a size suitable for what you need, some of the very cheap ones are too small for general use. The sunday joints come out much moister than the big oven.

Mstty

Xbigman said:

I have had 3 different mini ovens. All of them needed the temp set about 10c higher than I'd use in a full size oven and I always allow an extra 5 or 10 minutes cooking time (based on experience of the item being cooked) to get things right. However, they have all been 1500w and do cut in and out so they are cheaper than a 'proper' cooker. I've confirmed this with an energy monitor. 
My set up at the moment (I'm single) is a mini Oven, single stand alone induction Hob, Toaster and 1.5 litre, 900w Air fryer. No Microwave. Even with that there are savings to be made. Boil eggs in the same pan with something else. Have meals that use either the mini oven or induction Hob, rarely both. As I'm on Agile I have cold meals between 4pm and 7pm. I never cook between those times.

If you are not single then a mini Oven is really not powerful enough because the more you put in it the more power you need to cook with it. I do put in larger joints of meat at Xmas but allow for much longer cook times. 1500 watts will never cook a full size joint of meat as fast as a regular oven. I have found that slower oven cooked meat is nicer so I see this as a positive rather than a negative. On the flip side a full size cooker is designed for family use and not one person meals. Its simply over powered.

My mother had a pressure cooker and swore by it. I've never used one. I have used a mini oven/grill type thing that packed up after 3 weeks so I returned it. It was ok as an oven but I found the grill took ages to cook anything.

I've wondered if a George Foreman style grill might be a money saver but my diet wouldn't suit one so I've never tried it.


Darren

I can't see that working for a family but as an individual restricting hot food between 4-7pm and the other things you do is definitely doable.

I'm not sure a George foreman would offer you anything above your air fryer to be honest.

Our oven hasn't been on since we bought our air fryer and the hot weather came in and June this year is already looking like it is coming in 140kwh less than June 2021. (With other energy saving going on not just cooking)

BUFF

I am on my 2nd (1st lasted over 20 years) combination microwave (fan oven/grill/microwave).~50% larger than a solo microwave but much smaller cavity than my main undercounter oven which has hardly been on in decades (despite being a very expensive oven when installed). My preference is for Panasonic/Sharp but I am sure that others are also good.

Northern_Wanderer

BUFF said:

I am on my 2nd (1st lasted over 20 years) combination microwave (fan oven/grill/microwave).~50% larger than a solo microwave but much smaller cavity than my main undercounter oven which has hardly been on in decades (despite being a very expensive oven when installed). My preference is for Panasonic/Sharp but I am sure that others are also good.

Thanks, I had previously discounted the combi at the time due to cost I was wanting the Neff Slide N Hide main oven, but now I am reconsidering that. Will check them out.

peter_the_piper

We have a Neff, slide and hide oven because we saved having to have new electrics put in as it works on a 13amp socket. so if you need a real oven then I'd recommend one. For the Air fryer we use a Cosori 5.5litre which takes up to a 2kg chicken.

Alnat1

I make big batches of basic ragu type sauce to freeze in portions. I can then quickly fry off some meat, add the defrosted sauce and some herbs/spices and turn it into curry, bolognese, chilli, etc  

I really only use the microwave to reheat and for jacket spuds but I do use a slow cooker quite often.

Considered an air fryer but decided on energy saving v cost to purchase, for me it wasn't worth it. If my oven does go on I tend to fill it and an air fryer wouldn't cook lasagne, an apple pie and some flapjack at the same time. Also, I don't really want a great lump sat on my kitchen side and I've nowhere to store it when not in use.

Northern_Wanderer

Thanks for the comments so far.

The Ninja Foodi does look quite big, but I'm very tempted because it has air fryer/ steam/ slow/ pressure cooker in one. I'm not sure which size to go for as it's just 2 of us but I do tend to cook more than needed and freeze it. There's a 11-in-1 6L 1460W and a 14-in-1 7.5L 1760W (which is cheaper on offer just now) - anyone using either of these? Is it going to cost a lot more to run the 7.5L?

Blondetotty

I have a ninja and I swear by it. I've got the 15 in 1 but it is a lot of money for the initial outlay.  That being said, it is saving me money, how much is dependent on the setting but I fear I'm sometimes taking it to extreme.  I pressure cooked boiled eggs this morning and given I had to make two batches because the first was overcooked, it was a lot of faffing around when it reality it would probably have been cheaper to cook on the gas hob in a saucepan of water!!!  

I do use it much more than my electric oven though and finding myself using pressure cooking a lot more.  I cook for two hungry adults and it's big enough for us.   The biggest surprise for me was home made chips.  Cheap potatoes chucked in and they're better than the £3 a bag gastro chips that I was paying out for and a lot healthier as well.  A whole chicken cooked in about 20 minutes using steam airfry while the roast potatoes cooked underneath saved an hour in the oven. 

I absolutely love my ninja but I know they're not for everyone and the initial expense can be off-putting (I paid in 5 interest free instalments on amazon)