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What Uses More Energy? Kitchen Oven Vs. Microwave

With soaring energy prices and cost of living, we looked at the most efficient models of microwaves and kitchen ovens

Mark Hoffman

Managing Editor At Ovenreview.co.uk

December 4th, 2022

3 Minute Read

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Cost of living and inflation in the UK is around 11% according to House of Commons Library with expectations expected to rise until 2023 Q3 so what can we do against it?

For some, prepping meals at home and eating out less has been a norm. But how much can you really save cooking all your meals from home with these high electricity costs? In this article we analysed the latest statistics, measured electricity costs and tested efficient ovens and microwaves in the hope of saving the average UK family a bit of money.

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What is the average cost of eating out per year?

Well, during lockdown eating out, or rather eating in exploded. According to Businessofapps the revenue of just one of the UK biggest food delivery companies Just Eat increased their revenue b almost 1 billion pounds from 2020 to 2021. Just Eat Takeaway made €3.4 billion revenue in 2021, a 45% increase on the previous year.

So what is the average family spending on food? Well the Office of National Statistics suggests, the average UK household now spends around £1,628 on food at restaurants and takeaways every year. Which equates to roughly £135 a month or £30 a week.

How much does it cost to run an oven?

So we worked out the average costs to run an oven (gas and electric) and a microwave.

Savings	Microwave	Gas Oven	Electric Oven
Average energy draw per hour	1,200 Watts	Ca. 3,000 Watts	Ca. 3,500 Watts
Cost per hour	£0.41	£1.02	£1.19
Cost per month	£12.24	£30.60	£35.70
Cost per year	£146.88	£367.20	£428.40

Costs according to November 2022

This would be the costs if you used your oven or microwave 1 hour per day. Clearly some people use it more or less but this is the average. We can see that a microwave would overall be cheapest to run.

What about air fryers?

Whilst using a microwave proves to be the cheapest way to cook food and let’s face it, no one uses their microwave for 1 hour per day. Microwaves lag behind ovens in other aspects, such as cooking meals or cooking meats. Although they are perfect for heating up foods.

Air fryers are another cost efficient counter top appliance you can use to shave living costs whilst still remaining to cook good food. An air fryer much like an oven, uses super hot hair quickly circulation around the device to cook food.

How to save more money?

Air fryers are becoming more and more popular. We actually wrote a full article on air fryers, how they work and a comparison guide. You can view that here.

Mark Hoffman

Managing Editor At Ovenreview.co.uk

Mark Hoffman has worked as a freelancer and writer for several years. Reviewing ovens, washing machines and any other household items he can get his hands on. When he’s not sitting in-front of a computer he enjoys cycling, climbing and volunteering at charitable health organisations.