How much does it cost to run an oven?

An oven is a kitchen staple but you probably don’t not know how much it costs to run one.

With households struggling with high energy bills, food prices and petrol costs, everyone wants to know more about how much everyday things, like ovens, cost to run and weigh them up with alternatives. 

We’ve looked carefully at how much it currently costs to run an oven and how much it will increase when the Energy Price Guarantee changes in April 2023. 

How much does it cost to run an electric oven?

The cost of running an oven will depend on your model of oven.

Your oven will have a label explaining its energy usage, which is usually expressed in watts or “W” used per hour (kWh). 

To calculate how much it costs to run an oven for a particular amount of time do the following:

• Take the power rating per cycle (kWh) and multiply it by the time you leave the appliance on in hours
• Then multiply that number by the unit cost of electricity (0.34), the maximum an energy supplier can charge for electricity under the government’s energy price guarantee

Let’s say you have a 2,000W oven. This means it uses 2kWh.

The 60 minutes it would take to bake a jacket potato in this oven is 100% of an hour. And means the oven would use about 2kWh of electricity to cook the potato.

So the calculation is: 2kWh x 1 hour x £0.34/kWh = your jacket potato costs 68p.  

Let’s say you have an electric oven powered at 0.97W and use it for 30 minutes to cook a pizza.

The calculation is:0.97kW x 0.5 hours x £0.34/kWh = your pizza costs 16p. 

These figures show the exact cost of using an electric oven will depend on how powerful it is and there’s also the obvious factor of how often you use it. If you use it often, it will cost more, and if you use it less, it will cost less.

There's also the daily standing charge that applies regardless of use. The average charge for electricity is 46p and for gas it is 28p.

How can I cut the cost of running an oven?

Most cooking appliances are cheaper than an oven: A 800W microwave can cook a jacket potato in 10 minutes for 4.5p, compared with 60 minutes in the 2,000W oven for 68p. 

Meanwhile, a 100W slow cooker can cook a casserole in 8 hours for 27p, compared with 2 hours in the 2,000W oven for £1.36.

But unlike a microwave or slow cooker, you can cook many things at the same time in an oven: you have the option of cooking several things together, for example a roast chicken, baked potatoes, roast vegetables and apple crumble - or a large quantity of the same food which you then freeze in portions and heat up in a microwave at a later date.

How the Energy Price Guarantee will change the cost of running an oven

These prices we’ve calculated will change in April 2023. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has said: "From April, we will continue the Energy Price Guarantee for a further 12 months at a higher level of £3,000 per year for the average household.

Uswitch estimate that the unit rate for electricity will increase to 40p/kWh in April 2023. This would make the same jacket potato in the example above cost 80p.

As we do not yet know what the exact unit charge for electricity and gas will be under the Energy Price Guarantee from April 2023, we will update this article when we do.

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