How has the increase in the cost of energy impacted how often you cook warm meals?

Brie

interesting idea.  I've never heard of solar cooking but am a big fan of bbq so I can see how it could be useful outside at least.  

Our oven gets used about 3 times a week and it's the hob the rest of the time.  When it's not bbq. 

Frankly when we were without a kitchen earlier this year the bbq sorted most things for us - but I've never been a "UK only when it's summer" type when it comes to using a bbq.  Done Christmas dinner on it where I used to live with a path dug through the snow to get the turkey there and back.  

MP1995

Swipe said:

Prices have come down quite a bit of late so no longer an issue

I would suggest maybe 50% of the population may not agree with you but I guess you are just answering for you?

Maybe you have missed the news and how little many have and energy is far from cheap now circa 6% of the median household income (that's 6% after tax) and many are below those types of earnings.

Billxx

1. No.
2. Same as usual.  Everyday use Air Fryer or hob or Microwave.  Very difficult to quantify.

BarelySentientAI

MP1995 said:

Swipe said:

Prices have come down quite a bit of late so no longer an issue

I would suggest maybe 50% of the population may not agree with you but I guess you are just answering for you?

Maybe you have missed the news and how little many have and energy is far from cheap now circa 6% of the median household income (that's 6% after tax) and many are below those types of earnings.

Which is cheaper than it was at privatisation (circa 8-10% depending on stats) - and the drop has been more pronounced for lower users than it has for higher users.

The exact opposite of your argument.

But lets not derail the thread. 

MP1995

BarelySentientAI said:

MP1995 said:

Swipe said:

Prices have come down quite a bit of late so no longer an issue

I would suggest maybe 50% of the population may not agree with you but I guess you are just answering for you?

Maybe you have missed the news and how little many have and energy is far from cheap now circa 6% of the median household income (that's 6% after tax) and many are below those types of earnings.

Which is cheaper than it was at privatisation (circa 8-10% depending on stats) - and the drop has been more pronounced for lower users than it has for higher users.

The exact opposite of your argument.

But lets not derail the thread. 

There are more households in poverty/below the poverty line now and it is getting worse so it's not that clear cut.

It's not that energy is only 6% it's that food and other household bills have increased far beyond pay so everything is stretched.

The reduction in energy is welcome but it hasn't stopped other things going up and filling that void. Sadly.

Which does bring us back round to the thread and that's why many won't turn the oven on.

BarelySentientAI

MP1995 said:

BarelySentientAI said:

MP1995 said:

Swipe said:

Prices have come down quite a bit of late so no longer an issue

I would suggest maybe 50% of the population may not agree with you but I guess you are just answering for you?

Maybe you have missed the news and how little many have and energy is far from cheap now circa 6% of the median household income (that's 6% after tax) and many are below those types of earnings.

Which is cheaper than it was at privatisation (circa 8-10% depending on stats) - and the drop has been more pronounced for lower users than it has for higher users.

The exact opposite of your argument.

But lets not derail the thread. 

There are more households in poverty/below the poverty line now and it is getting worse so it's not that clear cut.

It's not that energy is only 6% it's that food and other household bills have increased far beyond pay so everything is stretched.

The reduction in energy is welcome but it hasn't stopped other things going up and filling that void. Sadly.

Which does bring us back round to the thread and that's why many won't turn the oven on.

Lets make it simple.

Energy is cheaper than it has been relative to income across most of the last three decades (seems like the early 2000s was slightly cheaper).

For low users (often correlated with low incomes), it is even cheaper than that.  As a share of income, it's 40% less than 1992 whereas for higher users it's only about 25% less than 1992 according to the OFGEM stats.

And your takeaway from these points is that it is the price of energy that is stretching people's budgets?  The component that has been getting cheaper and taking a smaller proportion of income?

Things are tight for people.  Statistically speaking, energy prices are not the reason.  Swipe's comment is an abrupt but mathematically correct assessment of the situation, and you shouldn't be jumping on them like you did.

MP1995

BarelySentientAI said:

MP1995 said:

BarelySentientAI said:

MP1995 said:

Swipe said:

Prices have come down quite a bit of late so no longer an issue

I would suggest maybe 50% of the population may not agree with you but I guess you are just answering for you?

Maybe you have missed the news and how little many have and energy is far from cheap now circa 6% of the median household income (that's 6% after tax) and many are below those types of earnings.

Which is cheaper than it was at privatisation (circa 8-10% depending on stats) - and the drop has been more pronounced for lower users than it has for higher users.

The exact opposite of your argument.

But lets not derail the thread. 

There are more households in poverty/below the poverty line now and it is getting worse so it's not that clear cut.

It's not that energy is only 6% it's that food and other household bills have increased far beyond pay so everything is stretched.

The reduction in energy is welcome but it hasn't stopped other things going up and filling that void. Sadly.

Which does bring us back round to the thread and that's why many won't turn the oven on.

Lets make it simple.

Energy is cheaper than it has been relative to income across most of the last three decades (seems like the early 2000s was slightly cheaper).

For low users (often correlated with low incomes), it is even cheaper than that.  As a share of income, it's 40% less than 1992 whereas for higher users it's only about 25% less than 1992 according to the OFGEM stats.

And your takeaway from these points is that it is the price of energy that is stretching people's budgets?  The component that has been getting cheaper and taking a smaller proportion of income?

Things are tight for people.  Statistically speaking, energy prices are not the reason.  Swipe's comment is an abrupt but mathematically correct assessment of the situation, and you shouldn't be jumping on them like you did.

The takeaway is let swipe reply then rather than wadding in with your size9's that's the simple thing to do,

I did clarify the whole cost of living and that's what stops people turning on their ovens, as much.

That's back on point of the thread so stop derailing it. 

To clarify further for the bottom 2/5 of households energy costs are actually 10-15% of their household income after tax.

victor2

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!

Welcome to the forum!

Can't give you detailed answers, but like many, the answer to 1 is no.

The answer to 2 is, I have little idea, as we have a gas hob, electric oven, microwave, and as seems to be popular today, an air fryer. It makes sense that the air fryer uses less electricity than a conventional oven because it's heating a smaller area.

With electricity at 21p/kWh, it doesn't cost a fortune to cook a meal when you consider the cost of a household's typical daily electricity use.

I suspect current solar cookers are designed for countries where there is no, or a sporadic, electricity supply on a grid - and the sun shines considerably more than in the UK! Cooking by gas is commonplace in less affluent (for want of a term) parts of the world, and is perhaps what you should compare against, with mains gas costing about 5.1p/kWh at present.

As a report on the reasons why a solar cooker would not be practical in the UK, you project might be informative, but as far as building a solar cooking device that would work in the UK, and save money, I doubt it is achievable.

That is just the opinion of a "random" poster on the internet though! Good luck with your project.

Krakkkers

You don't know until you try it i guess.

pseudodox

1. No

2. No idea.  I am as careful with energy use as I have always been so have always used well below the fictional "average".  I have more interesting things to do than work out the cost of making whatever I fancy to eat & drink in the moment.  But I batch cook in gas oven & reheat in microwave.  I hate microwaved jacket potatoes so will cook several together in the oven, when cooking a casserole then freeze the potatoes & reheat.  I do soak rice in advance so it takes little cooking but that is more a time saving than fuel saving exercise.

Really cannot see a solar cooker being effective in our climate.  I would be more inclined to get a slow cooker or even use a hay box.