Let me be perfectly clear: Most people can’t save much energy by changing their cooking methods — especially compared to other ways of saving energy. You’ll save a lot more energy by:
- setting your air conditioner to a higher temperature
- or switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs
- or washing clothes in cold water instead of hot.
I provide this page anyway not because it’s really useful, but only because so many people are curious about it.
How much do various baking methods cost? (oven-style cooking)
As the table shows, the difference between most methods is negligible.
| Temperature (degrees F) |
Time | Energy Used | Cost | |
| Electric oven | 350 | 1 hr. | 2.0 kWh | $0.24 |
| Gas oven, electric ignition | 350 | 1 hr. | 0.112 therm +0.35 kWh |
$0.21 |
| Gas oven, pilot | 350 | 1 hr. | 0.112 therm | $0.16 |
| Electric oven, convection | 325 | 45 min. | 1.39 kWh | $0.17 |
| Toaster oven | 350 | 1 hr. | 0.33 kWh | $0.04 |
| Crockpot | 200 | 7 hours | 0.70 kWh | $0.08 |
| Microwave oven | High | 15 minutes | 0.36 kWh | $0.04 |
From Citizens Campaign for the Environment, and Home Energy 1993 and 2001. Toaster oven is by my own measurement.
Assumes $0.12/kWh for electricity and $1.47/therm for gas
I suspect that the figure for electric ovens might be too high. I will measure the actual use of an oven some time and report it here.
Note from the second row in the table that gas ovens use electricity! Electric ignition ovens run a 350-watt glow bar to keep the gas flame going.
Note that for someone baking three hours a week, the cheapest baking method saves only $2.61/mo. compared to the most expensive method. This underscores my point that focusing on cooking methods is not the way to save electricity, and you should look at heating, cooling, lighting, and laundry instead.
www.michaelbluejay.com
One more exciting piece of writing coming from your blog
When will it stop….preferably never