You may be surprised to find out that there’s a lot more electricity used than was first anticipated. Although they don’t burn oil, the electricity that is required to circulate hot air at a rate of 170°C+ can be quite substantial. Depending on the power supply in your country, electricity consumption for these machines vary from 0.2kW – 1kW per hour.
Compared to using an oven typical electricity use ranges between 0.1 – 1kWh per hour depending on the specific model and/or food item being cooked! To put it into perspective:
– The average electricity consumption for most household size electrical appliances range between 1 and 4 kWh per month ;
– An electric stove uses approx 32000KJ of energy per month ;
So what does this mean in practical terms? Let’s say we wanted to cook a large family sized portion of chips (2.5kg) in an air fryer for a party – electricity costs vary in different countries but electricity companies do provide calculators which you can use to estimate electricity cost per kilowatt per hour, based on your electricity plan and electricity consumption:
Case Study of Air Fryer Power Consumption
Product: Air Fryer
How much electricity does it consume? KW/h / kWh
– If you are using the product in the UK , electricity consumption works out as follows: 166kW/h x 24hours = 4.032kWh ; – Cost : ~£3.70 3.70 pounds (~$5).
If electricity consumption is quite high, the cost of electricity can add up pretty quickly! But does it actually save you time?
How long does it take to cook food in an air fryer ?
In an air fryer with circulating hot air and convection: 20-40mins (dependent on meat weight) … this works out as follows for a chicken portion which comes out to £3.70/£5 : 0.09p per minute (9 minutes) 1p per minute (20 minutes) 1.58 pence per minute ( 40 minutes ) 3.25p per minute ( 1 hour 30 minutes )
This means that due to electricity consumption, it may take you longer to cook food in an air fryer than it would in a conventional oven or stove. But electricity costs are not the only energy costs associated with cooking.
So what about the other energy costs? The amount of electricity consumed is quite substantial compared to a conventional oven; but there are also several other factors that must be considered when calculating overall cost:
How much electricity does it save me on electricity? How long do I have to wait for it? Factoring in total cost per hour *20 cents per kilowatt hr (US) = 12 pence / kWh 10-15 minutes before electricity is consumed 0-1hours waiting time 20-40 minutes electricity consumption
… and electricity is consumed ~4 hours 30 minutes of electricity consumption? £1.80 – £3.20 per hour electricity consumption is required to cook food in an air fryer .
How does this compare to other appliances? (** electricity costs are for the UK )
Not exactly efficient, eh? So while they can help you save money on oil; electricity consumption of these machines cost a lot more than anticipated! They may help you reduce your electricity bill, but it will probably be at the expense of extra time spent waiting for them to cook your meal. I enjoy eating chips so I really wanted to make sure that there was some way to keep my food healthy AND taste delicious.
