Air Fryer Savings

[The Natural Philosopher]

Because its cheaper to use oil Currently oil is about 60p a litre as domestic fuel. There are about 10kW in a litre of oil, or at say 60% efficiency 6kWh.

That equates to 10p a unit electricity, and if you know where I can buy that, let me know.

Likewise the Aga is probably around 90% efficient at space heating.

And a heatpump even at a conversion efficiency of 300 % is hard put to equal 30p a unit these days.

If the powers that be came to their senses and knocked out reliable nuclear power at 10p a unit, I would probably use the immersion heater. And scrap the oil boiler not for a heat pump, but for a simple electric boiler. It would cost around £20,000 to put in a proper heatpump here, and probably require 3 phase electricity.

I can but a LOT of oil with that, probably enough to 'see me out'

But as long as the game is utterly ruinously expensive unreliable renewable energy, oil is in fact the cheapest option at the moment. And the Aga at least doesn't need electricity to work, it just makes it work better by regulating its temperature automatically.

[The Natural Philosopher]

My college room had a single gas ring. Intended to boil a kettle on. I used to use 'time division multiplexing' to make first a bolognese sauce, then boil the spaghetti, and then quickly reheat the sauce to make spaghetti bolognese for up to 6 people.

Another one ring meal was omelettes. In winter stews. Or deep fried chips, along with sausages in the fryer, plus a quick switch to fried eggs in a pan once they were done and draining.

One ring is more than enough for cooking. More is nice, but not essential.

I remember one time in Joburg the electricity failed early one Sunday morning, so I lit the BBQ early, and made coffee and toast on that.

Now it fails for 12 hours out of 24, I hear. They nationalised the electricity supply industry, and stole all the money.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Indeed.

But my oven costs me nothing I don't already need to spend to heat the house.

[wasbit]

Sorry, don't see the original post so tagged onto this one....

We have an Instant 3.8L Air Fryer from Argos (now £50). We don't experiment with cooking food preferring to use known good recipes. What we have found so far is that, along with basic recipes, it does a gorgeous lasagne using the same method as we would use in the oven (well it would, wouldn't it) & also is excellent for fish, either battered or breadcrumbed.

[Jeff Gaines]

Do you put the dish containing he Lasagne in the Air Fryer? Lasagne and Shepherd' pie and the only things I still cook in the oven.

[Max Demian]

That must have been one of the "advanced" Baby Bellings with boiling rings, simmerstats and a thermostat for the oven. But you had to choose between the oven, the grill and the second ring. (One ring you could use any time.) The original Baby Bellings had a solid hotplate with a grill underneath and an oven, which had a thermometer in the door. There were two high/medium/low/off switches to control them. I'm not sure which was the better idea. (The idea being to make a cooker which could work off a single 13A (originally 15A) socket rather than needing a special cooker point.)

[S Viemeister]

Yes. But not something I wish to repeat. My Smeg dual-fuel, five-burner hob makes cooking much less stressful.

[Owain Lastname]

I feel the same about having hot water after a couple of years without it in the kitchen due to ongoing works.

Owain

[S Viemeister]

I've not been without hot water for that long, but even a few days can be unpleasant. I have a giant kettle and some large stockpots for use when necessary.

[wasbit]

Apologies, the slow cooker was used for the lasagne not the air fryer.

[Owain Lastname]

For small jobs I used the kettle and for bigger things I just did them in the bath/shower (where I did have hot water) :)

Owain