- Christmas is an expensive day of the year – and energy bills are no exception
- Experts have found that many Britons plan to use ovens less this Christmas
- Instead, air fryers and slow cooker use is on the rise to help save money
Households increasingly plan to turn their back on ovens and cook Christmas dinner in air fryers and slow cookers to cut back on festive energy bills.
The average home pays an energy bill of £1,834 a year, rising to £1,928 in January, and for those hosting family or friends Christmas is likely to be the most expensive day of the year.
With many homes hosting several loved ones, the heating bill alone is considerable – even before cooking Christmas dinner is taken into account.
Size matters: Air fryers can manage a roast chicken, but turkeys are too large for the gadgets
With that in mind, energy experts at Uswitch has surveyed British households about how they plan to cook on Christmas Day this year.
Uswitch found that a fifth of households (19 per cent) will use an air fryer this Christmas, almost double the proportion that did last year, while the use of slow cookers will be up two fifths (41 per cent).
Air fryers are gadgets that use small amounts of oil, but use relatively little energy as they heat food up faster than ovens. Slow cookers, also called crockpots, are normally used to simmer food at low temperatures – also with very little energy use required.
However, Uswitch found that Britons are not ruling out ovens entirely for Christmas, with many planning to use a combination of cooking methods to whip up their festive spread.
Ovens still remain the most popular method of cooking a roast, with 83 per cent of households still planning to use one on Christmas Day.
The number of households planning to use the microwave has fallen by 6 per cent, despite them also being an energy-efficient cooking appliance.
How much does it cost to cook a Christmas dinner?
The cost of cooking a 5kg turkey at 160C in a fan oven for three and a half hours is around £1.89.
The bird cannot be cooked in any other device, such as an air fryer, as it is simply too large. Last Christmas, cooking the same turkey would have cost £3.60 on average due to higher energy prices.
Cooking roast potatoes in an oven costs around 68p on average, compared to 32p in an air fryer. Both methods also require parboiling on a stove for best results, which adds another 9p.
Similarly, roasted parsnips cost 27p to cook in an oven at current energy prices, or 9p in an air fryer.
Pigs in blankets are remarkably cheap to cook in an air fryer, at just 5p, compared to 27p in an oven.
Overall, an average household of four people should spend about £2.82 on energy to cook Christmas dinner this year.
Meanwhile, nearly one in ten people (9 per cent) will invite themselves to stay with friends or relatives over the holiday period to save money on heating, Uswitch said.
Ben Gallizzi, energy expert at Uswitch, said: ‘Appliances like air fryers, slow cookers and microwaves are usually the most energy-efficient kitchen devices to cook with, especially if you’re not making enough food to fill the whole of the oven.
‘Christmas is one of the few times of year when households use the whole oven, meaning it can work out to be more cost-effective on the big day.’
