Using an Aga or Rayburn

the_money_pit

Hi all, I love reading all your posts but I dont often join in so be gentle with me.:)

My question is this, I have an aga stove, which I love with all my heart. We are a family of 7 and therefore it gets a lot of use. It also does away with the need for electric kettle, toaster, griddle etc but with the rising price of oil we are finding it very expensive to run. Does anyone else have this problem and are there any tips for reducing its oil usage? Thank you.

jcr16

My parents have an aga, it was solid fuel but due to my dads health it was converted to gas.

My dad is very frugal ( knows how much everything cost down to a penny,lol) having it running on gas must be econimcal or they wouldn't have it. they don't use it to run the rad's tho.

would it be converted to gas ? would that be viable. sorry i don't know how much oil cost in comparison to gas.

nuttybabe

i am pretty sure my sisters runs on gas as well. although i did borrow her aga book (i want one) and you can make it more economical by the way you use it. you can turn it down (i believe there is a gage on the front) and make sure you have it serviced regular. also if you use the top bit it lets all the heat out of the oven bits and therefore uses more fuel to get the heat back up. think thats all it said in the book.

roosterpotatoes

We had an Aga when i was growing up and we used to turn it right down in the summer but it was always on apart from then, it ran on gas so i really cant help you, that was the only MSE thing they did lol. Im sorry i cant be of more help

janeawej

I have an oil Rayburn the poor relation of the AGA, I love my rayburn, there are 6 of us and I do most of my cooking on it, it heats our hot water and dries our clothes! I try to keep it running fairly low to save oil but hot enough to cook on, if you dont already do it try drying all your clothes on the AGA either with a drying rack overhead or make one up to put on top of the hotplate covers, also a rack beside it overnight dried clothes well too, does yours do hot water? to heat the rest of the house I open the oven doors and the covers when I dont want to cook on it to warm the house through as we have no other heating apart from a woodburner in the other room, leaving kitchen and other room doors open so warm air can circulate round is a good idea too, as that airs other rooms. I also dry my pots and pans on it!

Penelope_Penguin

janeawej wrote: »

I have an oil Rayburn the poor relation of the AGA

Nooooooooooooooooo :eek: I have a Rayburn, which also does my central heating and hot water - far superior to an Aga

the_money_pit wrote: »

My question is this, I have an aga stove, which I love with all my heart. We are a family of 7 and therefore it gets a lot of use. It also does away with the need for electric kettle, toaster, griddle etc but with the rising price of oil we are finding it very expensive to run. Does anyone else have this problem and are there any tips for reducing its oil usage? Thank you.

I think you have to accept that while the range cooler does all of these things, if it's on all the time (as ours is in winter) it's going to cost We have ours on low, to take the chill of the house, so we don;t need the CH so often.

I cook casseroles and pasta sauces, and even pasta inside, so don;t need to use the gas hob, and all the steam goes up the flue.

I use it to dry my washing, so need no TD.

I'll see if we have another thread on using range cookers effectively, and add this to that thread.

seasalt_2

We have got one of the smaller solid fuel rayburns (one main oven and a "warming" oven below it) and I love it, despite the work involved. It does our hot water and central heating as well as all our cooking/kettle boiling etc in the winter - we let it out in summer to save fuel, mainly anthracite - 3tonnes per year which at this year's prices works out at just over £1200 for us (includes offshore freight), so not cheap but a lot cleaner and therefore less work than coal so I think it's worth it. We do also burn some wood. (Our coalman who has same size rayburn reckoned he used nearer 4tonnes anthracite last winter just in case anyone is trying to do sums ahead of getting one.) Yesterday we had a four hour power cut (weather) and we still had heating, cooking and hot water - brilliant! Just wish I could get it to power the sewing machine! Yes, I know, I need a treadle.

the_money_pit

Thank you all for your help. Im reading through all the posts, old and new and I am confident that I will find some tips.

RealButter

You can also use a sheet of silicone paper directly on the hot plate, break egg(s) onto it, close the lid, and perfectly fried eggs without the need for ANY oil!

seasalt_2

What good idea. Thanks. Will be trying that. I also cook flatbreads and pancakes (drop scones) and even toast straight on the hotplate.