Air fryers have become massively popular since the start of the cost of living crisis as people look for ways to cut their energy bills. But Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis has come forward with some advice for people thinking about using the fryer or microwave instead of an oven.
Mr Lewis says cooks should hink carefully before ditching their more traditional kitchen appliances when trying to save some cash., reports the MEN. Speaking on the latest installment of his podcast, the consumer champion 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. 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.
"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. 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."
Which? has revealed the cheapest cooking appliance for popular mealls, with the air fryer being 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."
