October 14, 2022

Air fryers - the best-ever energy-saving gadgets for your kitchen

It cannot have escaped your attention that the UK's energy bills are rocketing. The price rises that came into effect in October now mean that the average household could be paying as much as, or in excess of, £2,500 for gas and electricity per year. Understandably, this is a huge worry for bill payers, and many of us will be looking for ways to reduce our outgoings with as little disruption to our lifestyles as possible. One of the most cost-effective ways of saving money in the kitchen is to minimise the use of your cooker and switch to energy-saving gadgets such as air fryers. 

It has been calculated that the average electric cooker costs £316.54 a year to run, while a dual-fuel cooker (using both gas and electricity) costs £264.03 annually. If you were to do all your cooking solely in the microwave, this would drop dramatically to just £30.02 a year. However, microwaves aren’t something you can use every time - you’ll never get crispy chips or crunchy roast potatoes in a microwave, and a Sunday roast is all but impossible. 

Air fryers  

There has been a lot of publicity around the effectiveness and fuel efficiency of air fryers. And with good cause. These small appliances offer multiple cooking functions with low energy usage. This makes them the perfect cost-saving alternative to conventional ovens, taking up minimal space but producing maximum results, saving money at the same time as allowing you to eat more healthily.

Advantages of air fryers:

  • You can achieve the same results as a conventional oven, browning and crisping your food where needed. 
  • An air fryer is easy to use and very easy to clean.
  • You can cook virtually anything in an air fryer, including soups, baked potatoes, cakes and other baked goods, frozen foods, leftovers and your Sunday roast - and yes, it is possible to cook a Yorkshire pudding in your air fryer. (It is worth noting, however, that there are foods you can’t cook in the air fryer, such as rice and pasta.) 
  • Your food will be cooked more healthily because you need to use a lot less oil, even for roast vegetables and chips - but you’ll always get the same deliciously crispy results! 
  • Food heated in an air fryer will be more evenly cooked.
  • Air fryers are one of the best energy-saving devices on the market.

Cost-saving advantages of air fryers:

  • They get up to temperature more quickly.
  • The oven space is a lot smaller so you’re actually heating less space and therefore using less energy.
  • Air fryers cook your food more quickly.

Air fryers for all sizes of household

Air fryers have quickly become a godsend for households of all sizes. For couples and people living alone, a basket fryer such as the Super Chef White Digital Air Fryer 1500W Multifunctional is perfect. With a 3.5L capacity, it’s big enough to cook meals for two people, but small enough to fit snugly on your countertop. This size of air fryer is estimated to cost around £90 a year to run - substantially less than using an all-electric cooker. Even taking the cost of our 1500W air fryer into account, you’ll still reduce your total costs by around half in the first year. 

The 1500W capacity air fryer is a basket fryer, but we also make two oven air fryers. The Gourmet Professional Clean Cook 15L Air Fryer Oven - Dehydrator 1600W. It cooks three times faster than a conventional oven and saves 70% of energy. It has a 15L capacity, which is enough to cook for a small family, and comes with a range of options such as a rotisserie and baking rack. It’s even got a dehydration setting, which makes it easy for you to preserve fruit, vegetables and herbs. Healthy and cost-effective eating has never been so easy! It has been calculated that a 1700W air fryer (slightly more powerful than this model) costs around £101 to run per year - so, again, you’ll recoup the cost of your air fryer within the first year and make a big difference to your energy bills.

Our largest air fryer is the Mega 21L Capacity Air Fryer Oven, Family Size Healthy Cooking, 1800W Multifunctional. It’s large enough to help you cater for family and friends, and it has settings that will allow you to bake, broil and toast, as well as having a rotisserie that’s big enough to cook a whole chicken on. If you love entertaining, this is the air fryer for you! It will cost a little more than £101 a year to run on average, but you will still recoup your initial costs in the first year’s energy savings. 

If there was ever a good time to buy an air fryer, today is the day to do it!