Martin Lewis warns air fryers don't always save money as he outlines how to decide when to use an oven
Lewis said cooking a single jacket potato in the microwave was a sensible way to save energy
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Martin Lewis has issued a stark warning for those trying to cut back on their energy bills by using air fryers or microwaves as an alternative to their oven.
After bills have skyrocketed over the past year, many have invested in an air fryer in the belief that they are more economical than an oven, but Lewis has suggested that this isn’t always the case.
The Consumer journalist stated that in some circumstances, it can actually be cheaper to just turn the oven on when cooking a meal.
He said it all comes to an equation which shows which appliance uses more electricity for making different dishes.
Airfryers are said to be typically more efficient than the oven, mainly because they cook food faster
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For example, cooking a single jacket potato in the microwave was a sensible way to save energy and cut down bills, Lewis said on his podcast.
He explained: “A microwave gives you consistent heat whereas an oven is warming up to full temperature and then topping it up so it isn't running at full power the whole time.
“But if you're doing a jacket potato for 10 minutes, it's going to be far cheaper [in the microwave] than doing a single jacket potato in an oven and keeping it on for an hour and a half.”
However, the expert said other meals might not be as efficient in the oven-replacing appliances.
“If you were doing a full roast dinner and you were cooking many of them, that is where it's probably cheaper than putting five or six jacket potatoes in a microwave because each additional object you put in a microwave, you need to keep it on longer because a microwave just heats the individual object.
“The general equation is, find the wattage of an item, then work out how many kilowatts or what fraction of a kilowatt it's using, then multiply that by 34p per hour of use.
“If you had a 1000W microwave and you put it on for 10 minutes, one KWH for a sixth of an hour, a sixth of 34p is about 6p, shall we say?
"So it's 6p turning the microwave on for that amount of time. So yes it's a very useful equation.”
The consumer expert often issues advice on how people can save money on their bills
PAAccording to Hometree, the average oven uses around 3KW, meaning it costs around £1.02 an hour to use.
Analysis by the company found that while the average wattage of an air fryer is 1KW, meaning they cost around 30p per hour to run.
Microwaves and slow cookers were found to be the most energy-efficient kitchen appliances.
At 700w, microwaves cost 23.8p per hour to run, according to Hometree, while slow cookers cost 5p an hour.
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