Power consumption of s/c vrs oven

Thanks lurtz - you're a sweetie! All the best to you too! !

I am more than slightly amused - I am actually laughing.
So someone asks a question and we try and explain the maths.
Then someone else disagrees - and some people go off and sulk.

This is so funny ... you guys make my day.

Did any of you actually read my post above where I said in conclusion to the maths that I think it comes down to convenience for the crockpot and that sometimes an oven is nicer (as in crackling or roasted chicken)?

And that the difference in price is something around 5 or 10 cents either way?

Yes?

Hubby is a sparky and basically all plug in appliances do use less electricity than your oven. Its true that an oven has a thermostat switching on and off to maintain the heat, but if you used a crockpot on high, you would only be using it around 4-5 hours, switching it to low you use it overnight or the whole day, so it makes sense that it would be drawing less power. Also, its a much smaller element so draws less. I have an older Sunbeam, 4L which is very economic to run. Remember that a lot of people still use their oven to not only cook in but to heat the living area, believe it or not, so they believe they are doing the economical thing. The ones that are doing that though are probably in older style rentals with older ovens which are not economical.
I would rather use a crockpot say 4 days out of 7 in Winter than the oven and would more likely only use the oven once every couple of weeks for baking, and do a roast at the same time.
We have found that changing power companies for the first time in 30 years and making sure we are on the right rate, reducing shower time and replacing all the shower heads has saved us a heck of a lot more power than any small kitchen appliances.

Well - one last word from me before I give up completely - has your sparky hubby read this thread - and has your hubby CALCULATED how many kwh your crockpot uses to provide a cooked meal as opposed to theoven?

Most likely NOT - as he is not a cook - but a "sparkie" ...

If NOT - then why bother?

It seems that nobody here knows how to calculate actual electricity USAGE - as opposed to saying things like "My crock pot uses as much as a light bulb" - which is wrong - It uses 350 Watts every hour - and nobody has 350 Watt light bulbs in their house ... .

Or stuff like "an oven uses much more than a crock pot" - which is fine on an hourly basis - but a crock pot uses 8 hours to cook something an oven would only use 1. 5 hours to cook ...

PLEASE do check what you are doing - before writing "crock" like that on here ... there are obviously lots of people out there who are NOT able to calculate how much an appliance uses per hour - and YOU are misleading them.

End of story - NOW go and do as you like - and foremost BELIEVE (instead of calculate) what you like.

Over and OUT!

Whoa, someone had something sour for dinner. As the thread was about power consumption, I figured my darling hubby's opinion would be valued. Seems that some people don't like discussion at all. There are a lot of variables. Personally, from 30 years almost of marriage and cooking, I find that anything I plug in to cook with uses less electricity in the long run with using the oven, which only gets used once or so a week. Hope someone has a better day tomorrow.

Gosh stormbaby. Why so nasty. Uli used an argument of logic and all you can do is respond in a patronising and totally offensive way becase you prefer to believe that plugging in two crock pots to cook a meal is cheaper than using one oven to cook the same amount of food.

Just because you believe that a plug-in appliance uses less power than your oven, doesn't make it so. It just means you believe what you think. Every circumstance is different.

For instance if I used my oven to cook my roast and roast vegetables, plus maybe a dessert simultaneously, or a stew with baked potatoes and pumpkin plus a rice pudding, simultaneously then the amount of electricity used would be way less than plugging in 2 crockpots to do a similar thing for 8+ hours, using uli's logic, and even your beliefs.

Plus, I have found that the lukewarm, dried out slush that comes out of my crockpot just doesn't compare with the succulent, beautifully cooked, hot food that my oven produces.

Wow, maybe you are doing something wrong then Buzzy as I've never had lukewarm, dried out slush come out of my crockpot yet.

Probably. However, I find the meat, whilst fall apart is has usually been totally sucked dry and left sitting in all of its liquid. Usually, I also don't use simmer sauces which my sister tells me I am supposed to use. Maybe the fructose/sucrose/maltose in these sauces help make meat not be dehydrated. Also, I have never yet produced a long, slow cooked meal that wasn't just a little past lukewarm and once it is served up goes very cool, very fast.

So if anyone wants to tell me how to stop those things from happening I'm listening.

Oh, I usually sear the meat first but that doesn't make a lot of difference. I don't put much liquid in the pot because there is usually way too much liquid by the end of the cooking process. This liquid comes from the meat itself. So what am I doing wrong? I follow the methods in the book too.

Maybe I'm too analytical and picky. Maybe I should learn to enjoy the fact that my large chunk of roast beef is only half the size when it comes out or my chunky stews are not so chunky anymore.

YEP - IF that IS actually your "darling husbands opinion" - which I very much doubt - as HE would understand the difference between Watts and Kilo-watt-hours ...

I need nothing "sour" to understand the maths - maybe YOU do ... then go for it ...

My elderly Ralta crockpot which is at least 30 years old and still going strong uses - according to the bottom of it - 'HI- 220W, LO- 110W'. I do most of my cooking on the low setting after the initial heating up on high. It doesn't have an 'auto switch' that some of the later models came out with.