In the midst of the current soaring energy prices, and in the mind frame that I should be trying to cut spending wherever I can, I have become increasingly curious about exploring alternative options to my every day energy use in the hope that I can find cheaper ways to live.
I discussed the topic with a friend of mine, Ellie, and she revealed that according to her smart meter - which sends daily graphs to her phone informing her of how much energy she is using, and how much she is spending throughout the day - she believes the most expensive time of an average day to be meal times. So, I decided to embark on a mission to discover the most cost effective way to cook food between an air fryer and an oven.
To do this effectively, I enlisted the help of Ellie so that I could use her nifty smart meter to review the cost of the spike in energy at the exact time that I cooked with each of the appliances. Her energy supplier is Bulb, which is one of the UK's leading suppliers of green energy.
Read more: I worked from home all day and this is how much my British Gas smart meter charged me
A flashback to GSCE science reminded me that I had to control my variables in order for this to be a fair and accurate test. I cooked the same meal, vegan cauliflower wings, at the same time of 12.30pm over the span of two days. To ensure that the readings would convey only the energy used to cook our food, I made sure that no additional energy was being used in the time surrounding our cooking.
After arriving at Ellie's for day one, we prepared the cauliflower and set up her impressive Ninja dual air fryer. The original recipe called for 30 minutes in the oven, so we decided to cut that time in half and set the air fryer to 200 degrees for 15 minutes. The process was very quick, after placing the wings in the appliance all we had to do was press 'go', and that was that. In hindsight, we could even have run the air fryer for less time as the cauliflower wings were slightly over done, but all in all it was a success and the wings were delicious.
The smart meter graph later revealed that cost of running the air fryer to cook the cauliflower at 200 degrees for 15 minutes had been just 20p. Given that the cost could have easily been further reduced by cooking for less time or at a lower heat to avoid slightly singeing the food, we both agreed that the air fryer was a quick and cost effective way to cook.
The next day we repeated the same routine, only this time we cooked using the oven. We set it to 200 degrees, the same temperature we used with the air fryer, and placed it on the fan oven setting. It took 11 minutes to heat up the oven, and then we cooked the cauliflower wings on a baking tray for a further 30 minutes.
The graph revealed that the cost of using the oven for 41 minutes at 200C was a staggering 42p, over double the price it cost to use the air fryer.
Findings
Airfryer
Time: 15 minutes.
Taste: Delicious, but slightly dry and a bit singed.
Cost: 20p.
Oven
Time: 41 minutes.
Taste: Perfectly cooked and more succulent than the ones cooked in the air fryer.
Cost: 42p.
Conclusion
The air fryer was the clear winner in the categories of both cost and time.
Using an air fryer saved 26 minutes in time and cost 22p less than using the oven. If I used the oven for this length of time every day over the span of a month, I would end up spending approximately £6.60 more than if I used an air fryer. Over a year, I would save £79.20 on switching appliances when cook just one meal a day.
Whilst the oven gave marginally better results on the taste test, I consider it to be a small price to pay for savings of over half the cost.
This experiment was conducted using Bulb energy as a provider, but if you are thinking of switching energy suppliers, you can use Supermarket.com, Energy Helpline or Confused.com to compare the many options available to you.
