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

kimwp

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haybox

twopenny

I used to cook from scratch, now it's ready meals in the microwave usually but picky about which ones.

Hunt around for the discounts.

More using Corned Beef with veg, I grow my own.

Making my own deserts but that's jelly and fruit or a biscuit.

If I do cook then it's batch cooking for several days. But that;s what I've always done.

Very few coffee and cakes out now. Bought some ground coffee and have it at home before I go out.

The change in habit has meant my fuel costs haven't risen.

oldagetraveller1

"Making my own deserts but that's jelly and fruit or a biscuit. "

Whatever you do, don't use icecream. A desert is not an ideal environment for that.

Stubod

1/ no change. I am sure that the amount of electric used for just cooking is fairly minor.

2/ We have purchased an air fryer as they are more efficient than using an electric oven. We have also used a microwave for years...

sarah1972

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!

1. I cook every day so nothing has changed.

2. I don’t think about the cost as we have to eat. I don’t own a microwave or air fryer. It’s always hob and oven or bbq or wood fired oven. 

thriftytracey

I used to be incredibly frugal using the oven but since we had solar panels and a battery installed I no longer worry.  I still use my air fryer though in preference to the big oven.  I stopped using the grill and haven't used it since energy price crisis.  Far too expensive even with having the solar panels.

thriftytracey

Re cooking using a BBQ, that's probably the most expensive method of cooking fuel (using calor or propane gas).

sarah1972

thriftytracey said:

Re cooking using a BBQ, that's probably the most expensive method of cooking fuel (using calor or propane gas).

I use it multiple times a week in the summer and a gas bottle last me over a year for £50 

MattMattMattUK

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.

They are mainstream in much of sub-Saharan Africa where they work very well, they are not very mainstream because they do not tend to work well in much of Europe, are very seasonal in their ability to be used and lack the ease and convenience of gas or electric cooking. In the UK they might work for 30-60 days a year in a good year. They need to be large to concentrate enough heat to be practical. As an example if you look at the solar energy reaching the surface in the UK you would need a reflector somewhere between 16 and 32 m2 to generate a practical amount of heat for an oven for much of the year and that would require you do to most of your cooking between 10:00-16:00, or to preheat the oven using peak sunshine. In January the reflector would need to be over 600m2 based on 100% efficient reflecting of heat and light, any losses in reflectivity or issues with mist between the reflector and the vessel would render the system entirely useless. If you used something like Vanta Black to absorb the most heat possible you might manage to increase peak efficiency slightly, 

As an example of real world irradiance at the equator in the Sahara (ideal conditions because there is no could and it is very dry) there would be a maximum of 7kWh/m2 and that would be relatively flat seasonally, so largely usable throughout the year. In the UK the average is around 1.55-2.1kWh/m2, however that is hugely seasonally variable, for much of winter your thermal losses would be below any heat you could add to the system.
https://globalsolaratlas.info/

skydivingLeopard said:

As part of my project, I need to work out if there is a market for this type of product. 

Lots of people will say that they like the idea of free cooking, they may like it less when the need a huge solar reflector. 

skydivingLeopard said:

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?

Not at all and I do not know many who have cut back on cooking, those that have cut back have are generally doing some batch cooking, but for many cooking costs are minimal compared to water and space heating costs. 

skydivingLeopard said:

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

In the summer it might cost 6-8p a day at most, in winter that might rise to 12-16p with more hot food, possibly a larger amount of up to 80-120p if cooking a large roast dinner, but then that also reduces the heating bill as that heat filters out into the property. 

skydivingLeopard said:

Thank you for reading this!

At the top end a normal family might use £150-250 a year of energy cooking meals, around 3kW per day. Generally those at the lower end of the income spectrum would lack the ability to pay upfront of a device, especially one that would only work for a few months a year. Their bigger issue is often not the cost of energy, but the cost of things like pots, pans, utensils to cook with etc. 

itsthelittlethings

1. Are you cooking fewer warm meals now compared to before the cost of living crisis? To what extent?
Maybe yes. I always cook less hot meals in the summer though. I'm not desperately short of money luckily so I use the oven to heat things up, I don't have a microwave for reasons of space.

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
£15-20 a month at a wild guess.