One needs a lot of counter space for all those appliances we absolutely must have to save energy. 🙃
Air Fryers
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The amount of stuff we need is staggering, thinking of buying a large diesel 4X4 to transport it all.
seriously though I have managed to get my leccy usage down to about 5.5kW per day now. I expect it will rise when I actually turn the consumer unit back on 🙄
On a serious note My old Fridge Freezer was using far more energy than I realised and wasn’t getting as cold as it should (which I only realised when I replaced it. Mine was a 50/50 split 16 years old and meant to use 361kW per annum. I purchased one (70/30 split) which had more capacity in fridge and freezer compartments for the same size. It uses 169kW per year. My old one was using far more than it’s original specifications after 16 years and I noticed a significant energy saving one I installed the new one. I’m talking probably 1.5kW per day or more and it actually gets properly cold. It should pay for itself in about 4 or 5 years!!
dfk41 these values people are branding about for consumption of appliances are not strickly acurate, for instance just because a oven is rated at 2KW it does not mean that it will consume 2KWh over a hour as the on/off cycle of the thermostat needs to be taken into consideration, for instance I timed mine once up to temp at 200deg C and found it to be off for 100 sec and on for 43 sec I believe it has a 1.8kw element so I would put the consumption as 0.774KWh for one hour of use whilst up to temp, and assuming it takes 10min to get up to temp 0.3KWh to get up to temp.
Has anyone connected a power consumption meter to one of these Air fyers to see what the actual consumption is
ken0062 That’s what I was referring to above when I mentioned more efficient 2 kW ovens. Of course it’s trickier to measure usage on a hardwired oven without a clamp meter or similar but you are right that the duty cycle will be significant. The insulation on modern ovens is remarkable - 200 C inside for hours and the outside doesn’t even get warm - this wasn’t the case for my 20 plus year old AEG oven I replaced a couple of years back. That heated the room, as did my old fridge freezer! I would expect air fryer’s to be using power for a higher proportion of the time than a conventional oven - but with the benefit of shorter cooking times.
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That duty cycle I quoted was for a 18 year old stoves oven, got me thinking now about how much I could save by getting a more modern oven (the missus has been bending my ear about upgrading the kitchen anyway).
Anyway had been looking into getting a air fryer but the only advantage I can see is that with it having a much smaller enclosure should take less time too heat up and I would assume would have a smaller heat loss
I think we all may have opportunities to make savinbgs medium term by spotting those appliances that we really could upgrade, to fit our lifestyle. I purchased a heat pump tumble dryer, uses far less leccy. Of course I hang clothes on a washing line whenever I can, but there are times, like tomorrow, when I won’t be able to.
I treated myself to a 1080p LED projector last year, I now enjoy a 100+ inch screen 800 ansi lumens, sporting Android TV and 50W, power consumption. My OLED 1080p TV uses around 140W!. Guess what I use more.
ken0062 I accept your point that an oven does not use 2 kwh all of the time, but there again, neither does my air fryer use 1700 watts continually!
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dfk41 True, I have no doubt that a air fryer is more efficient, it’s just that without knowing the real world consumption of both it’s a job to know if the difference is worth it, there appears to be so many press articles about energy at the moment using an electrical items power rating to calculate it’s actual usage
I was interested if anyone had actually measured the energy consumption difference between an oven and air fryer, and found the following well written article: https://www.bentasker.co.uk/posts/blog/house-stuff/is-an-air-fryer-more-energy-efficient-than-an-oven.html
Short version is that used properly overall an air fryer uses less energy than an oven, however the difference is quite small and even at 50p per kWh prices will take several years to break even. So if you have one then it makes sense to use it, but if you don’t have an air fryer then the upfront cost of buying one will make you worse off.
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hornbyben I would imagine my small Panasonic combi oven consumes very little more than an air fryer. So much so, it could take a decade or more to get my money back in savings. Anyone who has one knows for anything requiring it to be warmed up, it warms up in minutes.
DavecUK It would be interesting to see the actual real world usage. Why don’t you and dfk41 measure actual consumption over time and compare. I think you are probably right in that the results will be similar and using appliances that already have sunk costs is more sensible than capital expenditure for perceived usage savings. If you have the numbers all becomes clear. I’m reminded by the actual measurements I did comparing real world usage of my old and new fridge freezer - the latter using a frankly unbelievable 120kWh less a month than the old one. I would not have believed those figures if someone had merely imagined them but measurements are more convincing…
I think one thing you are overlooking in your comparison, is cooking times. I am not interested in these combi oven things because I agree if you have one then the savings will take ages. But when you are comparing an air fryer to a conventional fan assisted oven, then the oven is required to warm up firstly. Secondly, the cooking times as my chicken example, were three times the length………
What does meat cooked in an air fryer taste and feel like, I occassionally watch the shopping channels where they throw in a joint of beef and 10 minutes later it’s cooked and they say tender but I find that hard to believe unless it was a very pricey top quality piece. Surely meat needs a long slow roast in its own fat and juices. I might be a philistine on coffee beans but not with meat.
SurreyAlan Have not done beef yet although I did do a medium sized gammon joint in about 55 minutes that had perfect crackling and was succulent. A trick I learnt recently, was to cook a shoulder of pork in the slow cooker. Stick nothing in but the meat, turn it on low (or high if time pushes) and leave it for 5 hours. Then take the rind off and air fry for fantastic crackling!
SurreyAlan I have a slightly different situation, as I don’t have a dedicated air fryer. I have a countertop convection oven that has an air fryer function. For typical things that you would use an air fryer for, it does quite well.
I agree that it seems a little hard to believe that meat that you would normally roast would benefit from an air fryer. IN general, the reason for slowly roasting a piece of meat is to give it an environment where the collagen in the piece of meat can break down. Collagen in its native form is not a lot of fun to eat. But given (lowish) heat and time, collagen breaks down into gelatin. Gelatin adds the sensation of moisture to the meat, and makes it super yummy.
When roasting a piece of meat, there are several things you’re trying to accomplish at once. The combination of heat and time causes fat to render, collagen to convert to gelatin, and the proteins in the meat to transform from their raw state to a cooked state if they are on the inside, and the proteins on the surface to undergo the Maillard reaction that causes browning. Low and slow BBQ smoking sets up the same sort of environment.
Most conventional roast beef recipes call for an initial roast at a relatively high temperature, followed by a longer roasting time at a lower temperature. The initial blast of heat gets the browning going, and the second part accomplishes the cooking of the fat, protein, and collagen.
An air fryer would help with the browning, but is probably not ideal for inducing collagen breakdown. I suppose you could make the argument that part of air fryer is the fan that moves air around, and that air movement leads to faster cooking between getting rid of hot and cold spots and increased convection. But that’s also what a convection oven does. I would say that’s really the difference between roasting in a convection oven vs. a non-convection oven, and not a factor for the air fryer specifically.
Who waits for an oven to fully warm!? Just whack your food in and leave it a few minutes longer.
And I’ve just had a thought of what could probably save more money, a decent food thermometer. Most food doesn’t need cooking as long as the instructions say, especially things like chicken. You’d use less energy and have better food
Here’s another helpful tip to save money on cooking - go to the chip shop. You’re welcome. :-)