Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis has issued some important words of advice to anybody with a microwave or air fryer. Countless households in the UK have recently invested in air fryers from the likes of Ninja and Tower, with the promise that they are more economical than using an oven.
Many people have also ditched their ovens and microwaves and opted to use air fryers instead on the same premise. But Martin Lewis says people should think carefully before ditching their more traditional kitchen appliances when trying to save some cash.
Speaking on the latest installment of his podcast, Martin Lewis advised people on what to use when cooking. He said: "The problem with the equation for heating equipment is an oven is going to be about 2000W.
READ MORE: Marks and Spencer called a 'disgrace' by shoppers over advent calendar that promised free gin globes
"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 continued: "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."
Martin's guidance comes as separate research carried out by the consumer experts at 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."
However the energy expert agreed with Martin's point on larger meals, stating: "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:
Aldi's £7.99 hot water bottle is saving me from an expensive gas bill and it costs just 2p an hour
Argos and Amazon shoppers go wild for £56 oven that costs less than an air fryer to run
Aldi introduces new policy that affects all of its 900+ UK stores
McDonald's fans 'shaken to the core' after learning what's put in Sweet 'n' Sour dip
Shein shopper in awe of £8 dress that looks SO expensive people think its £1000 Chanel
