Air fryer vs oven and slow cooker

AS the cost of living continues to rise, the kitchen is a great place to make super savings.

Appliances such as air fryers and slow cookers have been praised for using less energy, but can they really reduce bills?

Lynsey Hope cooked six meals in different ways to work out which was the cheapest…

Sausage and chips

My sausages only took 15 minutes in the air fryer compared to 25 minutes in the oven.

The chips browned quicker too so not only was it easier and quicker but it cut costs by £1.24.

I was impressed by the saving as my air fryer is a large family- sized one, with a powerful 2,470 wattage.

But it was still much cheaper than cooking in my range oven.

My oven is old with a high wattage of over 7,000, so it is not very cost-efficient.

• Air fryer for 15 mins = 32p
• Oven for 25 mins = £1.56
• SAVING = £1.24

Beans on toast

It only cost 1p to brown my toast and another 1p to zap my beans for two minutes in the microwave.

Heating up the beans on the hob took around five minutes and cost
22p, so this method wasn’t very cost-efficient.

My gas hob has the higher wattage at 2,000 watts, but that extra power didn’t help cook the beans any faster, and taste-wise there was
no difference.

• Microwave and toaster for 2 minutes = 2p
• Hob and toaster for 5 minutes = 23p
• SAVING: 21p

Spaghetti bolognese

I did not expect the slow cooker to work out cheaper because it took four hours to cook my bolognese.

But what I didn’t know is that slow cookers operate at a lower temperature, making them more energy efficient.

It was also easier to prepare my meal as I was able to bung all the ingredients in the appliance earlier in the day, then by tea time it was
ready to eat.

Minimal effort and a small cost saving — but every little counts.

• Hob for 1 hour and 10 minutes = 63p
• Slow cooker and hob for 4 hours = 55p
• SAVING = 8p

Roast chicken and roast potatoes

You’ll need an air fryer big enough to squeeze a chicken in, but if you have one I’d recommend it.

It only took about 45 minutes in the air fryer, which saved me money, and it was really delicious to eat too.

Same for the roasties, which were also quicker and cheaper to cook using the air fryer.

Overall, this was an impressive cost saving of £3.65 as my oven would have been in use for a lot longer to do the same job.

• Air fryer for 45 minutes = 93p
• Oven for 3 hours and 30 minutes = £3.58
• SAVING = £3.65

Jacket potato

It was much cheaper to blast my potato in the microwave — and quicker, taking just ten minutes.

But I have to admit it didn’t taste quite as good as it did after an hour in the oven.

It was perfectly edible though, so if you’re trying to save on energy bills, this is a good saving.

If you ate a jacket potato twice a week and cooked in the microwave instead of the oven for a year, you would save more than £184 over a full year.

• Oven for 1 hour = £1.87
• Microwave for 10 minutes = 10p
• SAVING = £1.77

Pizza

Not everyone will have an air fryer that fits a pizza, but it’s an investment worth considering.

It only took seven minutes to cook a shop-bought pepperoni pizza at a cost of just 6p.

It tasted amazing too, with a crispy base.

The pizza took longer to cook in the oven — around 11 minutes — and as the wattage of the oven is much higher, it cost 34p.

If you cook just two pizzas a week in an air fryer, this will save you nearly £30 a year.

But forking out for one would not offset any savings that year.