Martin Lewis has issued a fresh warning about microwaves, ovens and air fryers and comes as many people may be purchasing them.
The kitchen gadgets are flying off the shelves - especially at this time of year - whether it's a gift for someone soon to be placed under the Christmas tree or for yourself after you've seen a bargain.
The financial guru has said that whilst air fryers have been soaring in popularity, people shouldn't ditch their ovens or microwaves just yet.
READ MORE: Scotland's gritters names for 2022 and how to track them live
Speaking recently on his podcast, and as reported by MEN, the Money Saving Expert founder handed out some much needed advice to people about what they should be using in their kitchens. He explained: "The problem with the equation for heating equipment is an oven is going to be about 2000W.
"A microwave I believe, from memory, a best guess explanation, a microwave gives you consistent heat whereas an oven is warming up to full temperature and then topping it up so it isn't running at full power the whole time."
He added: "But if you're doing a jacket potato for 10 minutes it's going to be far cheaper [in the microwave] than doing a single jacket potato in an oven and keeping it on for an hour and a half. However if you were doing a full roast dinner and you were cooking many of them, that is where it's probably cheaper than putting five or six jacket potatoes in a microwave because each additional object you put in a microwave, you need to keep it on longer because a microwave just heats the individual object.
"General equation is, find the wattage of an item, then work out how many kilowatts or what fraction of a kilowatt it's using, then multiply that by 34p per hour of use." The same advice can be applied to air fyers and halogen cookers.
Martin continued: "If you had a 1000W microwave and you put it on for 10 minutes, one KWH for a sixth of an hour, a sixth of 34p is about 6p, shall we say? So it's 6p turning the microwave on for that amount of time. So yes it's a very useful equation."
The 50-year-old handed out the handy advice after experts from Which? revealed the cheapest cooking appliance for popular meals. For the majority of foods that were tested, the air fryer was found to be the cheapest as well as the quickest option.
Emily Seymour, Which? Energy Editor, said: "There has been a surge of interest in air fryers and smaller cooking appliances in recent months, and our research shows that the hype could be justified in some cases, as we’ve found these products cost less to cook certain foods than conventional ovens.
"The cost savings will soon be lost if you have to cook more than one batch though, so it’s still better to use your oven if you’re cooking large quantities."
READ NEXT:
Martin Lewis' 'one degree thermostat challenge' as people try to save money amid rising bills
Ikea 'Christmas tree that comes with a gift' as shoppers to get voucher this winter
What is Seasonal Affective Disorder, how are you diagnosed and what is the treatment?
Scotland's gritters names for 2022 and how to track them live
Meghan and Harry Netflix documentary: Release date and where to watch the highly anticipated show
