As the cost of living crisis bites, cooking can be one of the biggest energy expenditures for a home. But there are things you can do to reduce your kitchen energy bills.
The scientist conducted a series of mini-experiments at home to compare the energy savings of various appliances. Professor Amin Al-Hababe tried different ways to cook pasta, rice and potatoes and found that families can save a lot of money depending on the equipment they use. A professor of intelligent systems engineering at Nottingham Trent University has calculated that people could save over £100 a year on french fries, over £50 on rice and nearly £30 on boiled potatoes each year if they took a different approach.
In an article for The Conversation, Professor Al-Hababeh explains how he tests pressure cookers, thermoses and deep fryers in a kitchen with conventional ovens. Here’s what he found.
Deep fryers save about two-thirds of the energy compared to electric ovens. Professor Al-Hababeh said that the power consumption of a fryer is about 68% of the oven’s power. Freezing 500 grams of fried potatoes at 200 degrees Celsius, his deep fryer uses 0.43 kWh and cooks food in 18 minutes, while the electric oven uses 1.35 kWh and takes 32 minutes. According to him, this can be explained by the large size of the furnace and the fact that it must be preheated.
Making 500g of potato chips a day, an air fryer could save a British family around £114 a year. This is based on electricity and gas prices of £0.34/kWh and £0.10/kWh respectively – this is the price set by the October 2022 energy price cap.
The thermos rice cooker uses only 0.03 kWh to boil 200 ml of water and cook 150 g of rice, which takes 2 hours (for one person). A typical pot only takes 15 minutes but consumes 0.18 kWh. Thus, thermos cookware saves 83.3% of energy. 600 grams of rice a day saves about £74 a year.
When cooking pasta per person, the energy needed to boil water is 0.09 kWh, which makes it possible to cook pasta in 30 minutes. Cooking the same pasta in a regular frying pan requires 0.26 kWh of electricity. This saves 65.4% of energy. A family of four can save around £84 a day on a single meal.
In each test, one kilogram of potatoes was cooked using electricity. A regular frying pan uses 0.65 kWh and needs 30 minutes, while a pressure cooker needs 20 minutes and 0.42 kWh, and a slow cooker needs about 0.59 kWh and cooks potatoes in two hours.
Using a pressure cooker in the UK saves about £28.50 a year on electricity. Save £7.40 a year on a slow cooker, but save even more by cooking at a lower temperature for a longer period of time. However, if you have a gas stove, a pressure cooker can save up to 81% on energy costs compared to a conventional frying pan.
Professor Al-Hababeh believes that not everyone has these different appliances, but even spending money on them can save you money in the long run. “Based on current average market prices, a small thermos stove will set you back around £15 (£100 for a family), £70 for a home fryer, £50 for a pressure cooker and £35 for a slow cooker. .
“Assume a family cooks only one meal a year. For a deep fryer, compared to an electric oven, the payback period for an oven chip for one meal a day is about 7 months. After an investment of £70, you will be in 7 months. No real the savings will be visible within a month, but you will save £114 per year.”
According to the scientist, there are other things that families can do to reduce the cost of cooking. “Efficient cooking is about reheating food, not in the kitchen. A lot of energy leaks through the sides of the pot rather than warming up your dinner.”
According to him, gas stoves are cheaper than electric ones. Gas prices in the UK account for around 30% of electricity bills based on October 2022 prices, while daily flat rates only account for around 60% of fixed electricity bills.
“So for the same amount of heat, using a gas stove should theoretically be about 70% cheaper. Electrical equipment is more efficient because heat is distributed and controlled more efficiently. But who is the consumer champion? Estimated electricity bills end up in two times more expensive than cooking gas in the oven.
But induction hobs are the best, so stovetops might be a different story. “The induction cooker uses a magnetic field to heat the pan directly,” says Prof. Al-Hababeh. “Induction hobs save energy in two ways: the hob itself doesn’t get hot, so heat isn’t wasted, and heat is transferred to the cookware via a magnetic field, so heat doesn’t dissipate.” For the manufacture of an induction cooker, black metal pans are needed.
Finally, as tempting as it is, the professor says that people shouldn’t add heat while the liquid is boiling. This is because using high heat on an already simmering liquid will not speed up cooking as the temperature of the liquid will not change. So if you like hard-boiled eggs for breakfast, turn down the heat as soon as the water boils.
Post time: Oct-26-2022