Saving money by using an air fryer - how do you calculate it?

[FormerlySpeckledyHen]

I keep reading about the money saving opportunities by using an air fryer and I’m tempted, but do like to see facts!
I’ve tried to find running costs but can’t find anything.

If you have one how do you measure how much you save by using it?
Do you cook an identical meal in each type of oven and take meter readings to calculate it?

Op I don't know but we have one and it's brilliant.
I wouldn't cook a chicken in ours but it Seems incredibly wasteful to use a huge oven now for all the smaller things I do

Here you go www.thesun.co.uk/money/18137840/how-much-cost-use-air-fryer/amp/

Apparently it’s about 12p to cook a chicken in an oven but around 6p to do it in an air fryer!

Thank you

We've just bought one and dh worked out that it's about half the energy. It's a lower wattage, it cooks much faster and you can often get away with a lower temperature. We love ours and wish we'd bought one sooner.

My ninja is the best thing I've bought , definitely recommend.

I cook a chicken in mine (if I buy a small-medium one) and it's the best!

Bumping to see if any experiences on calculating the cost?

The rating plate on our oven says 3.5 kW, the air fryer 1.5 kW.

The space in the air fryer is smaller and heats up quicker, plus cooking time is a bit quicker. I CBA to work out any detail, but I'd say the air fryer would cost somewhere between a quarter and half the cost of the oven for something small like fish, chicken or breaded products for two people. Call it a third, to take into account the rating being just under half, and it taking less time.

Or you can get plug in energy monitors that would tell you exactly how much it would cost a certain thing either way (our ovens just plug into normal sockets).

I haven't actually done a calculation, but I'm happy that the air fryer is cheaper when cooking for 1-2 people, so it works for us - there's just two of us and DP works away or gets fed at work quite a bit, so I'm often cooking for just me.

It might not be the same if you're cooking for a family as you'd need a bigger air fryer which might be higher kW.

REAP have a calculator you can use.

You'll need to know how much your electricity costs in p per kWh, and the output of the appliance in watts. You can compare like for like timings initially, but you will find that an air fryer will cook things in about 75% of the time of a conventional oven or less as long as you don't overload it.

For the appliances I have, if I want to cook oven chips for instance, I might only need the airfryer on for 25 minutes as it needs no pre-heating. Whereas the oven will need 15 minutes of pre-heating, and then say 35 minutes to cook said chips.

25 mins air fryer costs 16.8p including VAT
50 mins oven usage costs 66.7p including VAT

Thank you all for your excellent posts. Much appreciated.

Sorry to jump on your post OP, but is an air fryer worth getting if you are a non meat eating household?

You can cook anything in it, not just meat.

Yes! It's for far more than just chips. We use it for everything. Veggi fingers are amazing in it

Can I just jump in to ask when you cook a chicken does it produce juice like roasting that you could use for gravy?

We've just got one.

950g whole chicken - normally about 1 hr 20 in oven including pre-heat
35 mins in air fryer, all in!

Any air fryer recommendations? Only two of us but one which maybe has two compartments? It is one better?

I went for one compartment because I wanted to be able to do a whole (small) chicken.

I'm getting my kitchen redone and it made me wonder whether going forward people will have ovenless kitchens and instead use airfryer/ninja.

I have only done one so far, but no, it didn't - the skin was crispy and the inside was juicy, so I think it kept the juice in. An advantage (if you like the skin) is that it doesn't come out soggy underneath.

The one thing it doesn't have is the size of an oven - if you needed lots of 'oven' food, say for a party (or if you have a large family), you'd have to cook in relays, which would negate the efficiency of it. And it's not going to fit anything like a Christmas (whole) turkey.

With just me and DH to feed, the size is ideal for our everyday meals. I have set a challenge now to see how long we can go without switching the oven on!

I don't think we'd go totally oven free but we have 2 single ovens, each with a grill function.

If we were redoing, we'd definitely only have one oven and also make sure there is a place where the air fryer can live out on the worktop without being in an inconvenient place.