Cooking in an oven is one of the most common ways to prepare dinner – yet you probably haven’t given much thought to how much it costs to use one until recently.
With households struggling with high energy bills, and rising food and travel costs, everyone wants to know more about how much everyday things, such as ovens, cost to run and learn about cheaper alternatives.
We’ve looked at how much it currently costs to run an electric oven and how much it will increase when the Energy Price Guarantee changes in April 2023.
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How much does it cost to run an electric oven?
To calculate the cost of running an oven, first look at its model label (usually located in the door frame or on the back of the oven) which will explain its energy usage in watts or “W” per hour (kWh).
To then calculate how much it costs to run the oven for a particular amount of time:
- Take the power rating per cycle (kWh) and multiply it by the time you leave the appliance on in hours
- Then multiply that number by the unit cost of electricity (0.34), the maximum an energy supplier can charge for electricity under the government’s Energy Price Guarantee
Let’s say you have a 2,000W oven. This means it uses 2kWh.
The 60 minutes it would take to bake a jacket potato in this oven is 100% of an hour. And means the oven would use about 2kWh of electricity to cook the potato.
So the calculation is: 2kWh x 1 hour x £0.34/kWh = your jacket potato costs 68p.
Let’s say you have a less powerful electric oven at 0.97W and use it for 30 minutes to cook a pizza.
The calculation is:0.97kW x 0.5 hours x £0.34/kWh = your pizza costs 16p.
You also have to factor in the daily standing charge for electricity that applies regardless of how often you use your oven (or any other electrical appliance). The average charge for electricity is 46p while for gas it’s 28p.
How can I cut the cost of running an oven?
Ben Gallizzi, energy expert at Uswitch.com, comments: “Cooking in the oven is often more expensive to run than other kitchen appliances.”
Slow cookers tend to be the most efficient – they cook food on low power over a number of hours and come with the added benefit of providing a fully cooked meal when you finish work, if you get your timings right.
For example, a 100W slow cooker can cook a casserole in 8 hours for 27p, compared with 2 hours in the 2,000W oven for £1.36.
Meanwhile, a 800W microwave can cook a jacket potato in 10 minutes for 4.5p, compared with 60 minutes in the 2,000W oven for 68p.
But an oven has the added benefit of allowing you to cook many things at the same time, for example a roast beef, baked potatoes, roast vegetables and apple crumble – or a large quantity of the same food which you then freeze in portions and heat up in a microwave at a later date.
Tracking your energy usage will help you see if changing your habits makes a difference to your bill. You can do this via the Utrack by Uswitch app which allows you to see the impact of different appliances on your bills with hourly graphs. Go.Compare's energy costs calculator also reveals how much it costs to run common household appliances and compare them against each other.
How the Energy Price Guarantee will change the cost of running an electric oven
Cooking costs will increase when the government increases its Energy Price Guarantee from £2,500 to £3,000 in April 2023.
Uswitch estimates that the unit rate for electricity will increase from 34p/kWh to 40p/kWh in April. This would make the jacket potato in the example above cost 80p.
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