We'd like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum. This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are - or become - political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.
How has the increase in the cost of energy impacted how often you cook warm meals?

skydivingLeopard
Posts: 1 Newbie
in Energy
Hi everyone.
I am 15 years old and I am working on my GCSE design technology coursework. The context that I have decided to go with requires me to design and make a product that saves households money. I know that the rise in energy bills in recent years and the cost of living crisis have squeezed household budgets, so I plan to make a cooking tool that uses the sun. This cooker would have no need for electricity or gas and could also be used to replace BBQs.
Solar cookers already exist, but are not mainstream because they are often bulky and expensive. As part of my project, I need to work out if there is a market for this type of product. I would be very thankful if I could have a few answers to my questions:
1. Are you cooking fewer warm meals now compared to before the cost of living crisis? To what extent?
2. How much do you spend each year/month on energy to cook warm meals? - think about how often you use your oven, hob, microwave, BBQ etc
Thank you for reading this!
I am 15 years old and I am working on my GCSE design technology coursework. The context that I have decided to go with requires me to design and make a product that saves households money. I know that the rise in energy bills in recent years and the cost of living crisis have squeezed household budgets, so I plan to make a cooking tool that uses the sun. This cooker would have no need for electricity or gas and could also be used to replace BBQs.
Solar cookers already exist, but are not mainstream because they are often bulky and expensive. As part of my project, I need to work out if there is a market for this type of product. I would be very thankful if I could have a few answers to my questions:
1. Are you cooking fewer warm meals now compared to before the cost of living crisis? To what extent?
2. How much do you spend each year/month on energy to cook warm meals? - think about how often you use your oven, hob, microwave, BBQ etc
Thank you for reading this!
0
Comments
-
Just using my air fryer more or gas hob cooked meals.1
-
I use my air fryer instead of the oven, much cheaper and faster.0
-
1 - No, but as a primarily single person household I have always cooked two chicken breasts / two salmon fillets / etc together and had the second one cold the following day. I also regularly batch cook and reheat meals.
2 - My gas bill for July (31 days) was £14.52 comprising £5.26 gas, £8.57 standing charge and £0.69 vat. The gas usage was for heating hot water tank and hob cooking. I would expect the latter to be a much smaller part of the gas cost. Electric oven, grill and microwave similarly only a few pounds pcm. So for me any outlay on a new device would need it to be inexpensive to yield a payback in a reasonable time period. And a solar powered cooking device would have another disadvantage as to how often it would be useable in the UK's climate further limiting any savings.
Good luck!1 -
skydivingLeopard said:Hi everyone.
I am 15 years old and I am working on my GCSE design technology coursework. The context that I have decided to go with requires me to design and make a product that saves households money. I know that the rise in energy bills in recent years and the cost of living crisis have squeezed household budgets, so I plan to make a cooking tool that uses the sun. This cooker would have no need for electricity or gas and could also be used to replace BBQs.
Solar cookers already exist, but are not mainstream because they are often bulky and expensive. As part of my project, I need to work out if there is a market for this type of product. I would be very thankful if I could have a few answers to my questions:
1. Are you cooking fewer warm meals now compared to before the cost of living crisis? To what extent?
2. How much do you spend each year/month on energy to cook warm meals? - think about how often you use your oven, hob, microwave, BBQ etc
Thank you for reading this!
2. - not sure how you quantify cost - but cooked meals at least once a day ( main meal usually ).
0 -
1. No
2. Same as usual.
Life in the slow lane1 -
It's more about efficiecincies rather that not using something for us.
The oven if it goes on is used for batch cooking and utilising as many shelves as possible.
Air fryer and microwave are used more.
0 -
- No. We are fortunate (or unfortunate if you look at the running costs!) to have an AGA cooker which is permanently on, so we can use it for cooking whenever we want. It also heats the kitchen and the warm air goes upstairs.
- The AGA currently costs around £3 a day in electricity to run and is our main hob/oven. We do use a microwave as well, but probably only for two hours in total per week. Mainly to defrost things quickly if needed.
0 -
1. No
2. Don't know, it would be difficult to find out as I don't know the energy efficiency of my microwave or hub&oven.
I use the microwave once per day, approximately 5mins at home (and 5 minutes at work). I cook on Sunday and pre-pack my food for work and freeze it (it takes a while to cook two meals, but it's never changed based on energy costs).Note:I'm FTB, not an expert, all my comments are from personal experience and not a professional advice.Mortgage debt start date = 25/10/2024 = 175k**/2024 = 139.3k01/2025 = 137.3k0 -
1. No. But full roast dinners (i.e. leg of lamb, large joints) are a treat when we have visitors rather than just when there are two of us. As I hate cooking roast dinners, I must admit to using the energy price increases to my advantage to cut down on my workload just as much as worrying about the cost. If I do get talked into doing a full roast I will try to do enough for 2 hot meals (one on the day, one microwaved up the next) as well as leaving a cold cut for sandwiches.
2. Oven is on no more than 30 mins per day and I try to fill it so cook a main meal and make a pudding such as a crumble which will then either be frozen or eaten over the next couple of days. Haven't quite got to grips with the air fryer yet.....0 -
Prices have come down quite a bit of late so no longer an issue0
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

Categories
- All Categories
- 348.3K Banking & Borrowing
- 252.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 452.4K Spending & Discounts
- 240.9K Work, Benefits & Business
- 617.1K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 175.6K Life & Family
- 254.1K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16K Discuss & Feedback
- 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards