with energy costs the way they are, is 3 hour lentil casserole more green than a 2 min microwave meal?

[Gemzooks]

Been thinking about this recently. I make a lot of chicken soup, lentil stews or whatever, that take say 1-2 hours on the top of the stove or in the oven. Using up leftovers, making a lot at once etc.

But those 2 hours of gas cost a lot! Will we reach a point where it's actually better to buy and quickly microwave a ready-made lentil casserole? But then of course energy has gone into making that as well. Hmmm..

why not get a slow cooker?

Slow cooker a good idea. If you do lentils or other pulses you have to quick boil them first to get rid of the toxins (or use tinned) as slow cookers don't get hot enough to do that.

you could say that the oven heats the room aswell?..obviously only good if you dont also have heating on

fill the oven aswell...baked pots and rice pudding etc..that can be heate din m/wave during the week.

all good ideas.. want to get slow cooker but DH doesn't like the idea of it, sigh! will get one anyway..

you have to consider the energy costs of manufacture, packing and transport, especially if the meal is chilled, so has to be kept cold in transit and in the shop. I think it's unlikely a homemade lentil stew will have bigger carbon cost.
Microwave very handy, though for re heating any stew left over.
Let's hear it for lentils!!!

If you fancy working it out, use the following equation:

rating of appliance (kW) x time on (hours) x cost of energy (p/kWh) = cost of cooking method (p)

rating of the appliance can be found in your manual for the hob, on the front of the microwave (new ones are often 850 W = 0.85 kW) or on the bottom of the slow cooker (I can't remember mine).

Your energy cost can be found on your bills or you could use the following as a guide: gas - 3 p/kWh, electricty 12 p/kWh

Being green isn't about cost to your pocket it is about the cost to the planet, but it can be a lot cheaper and better for the planet to myo... food you make yourself is surely healthier, organic lentils? (you care more about what you put in your food than most manufacturers)... more cost efficient, a pot of food can serve a lot more people than a microwave meal? and (apart from lentils) food can be locally grown.

microwave meals are individual/small portions
covered in plastic and cardboard
ingredients are sourced for cost efficiency not for the food miles,
it is cooked before you get it, so it is heated twice at least
plus distribution by manufacturer and going to supermarket to get it

but if you get a wood burner stove you could heat the room and cook?

You can replace the p/kWh figure with the kg CO2/kWh figure to find out how much carbon dioxide each method provides. Use 0.194 kg CO2/kWh for gas and 0.422 kg CO2/kWh for electricity.

Is there an idiot's guide here?

Slow cooker or stove for soups/casseroles?

Gemzooks, are you using orange or green lentils? Orange ones only take about 20 mins to cook on the hob, green ons about 40 mins. You shouldn't need to casserole them for 3 hours! So actually they are quite economical on fuel, more so than other pulses like chickpeas and kidney beans which can take up to 2 hours!

If you do need to cook casseroles for 3 hours, could you turn the heating down in the kitchen and make do with the heat from the cooker?

I also find that casseroling in the oven warms the kitchen up nicely and doesn't create as much steam, so you don;t need to use the extractor fan or open the windows, hence losing the heat.

Slow cooker. Soak and boil pulses for 10 mins first.