COOKING your Sunday roast or favourite meal in an air fryer could actually be costing you more than using an oven.
Sales of have surged in recent years as the high forces households to think of cost-effective ways to cook their .
But the nifty devices aren't always the cheapest option when it comes to rustling up your favourite dish.
The appliances are generally best for smaller meals due to their petite trays.
However, for anything larger like a full Sunday roast, it might be more cost-effective to use an oven.
Natalie Mathie, expert at Uswitch.com, explained: “Air fryers and microwaves are great for cooking small meals, as you don’t need to waste energy heating the whole oven.
“(But) there are times when the oven comes out on top – and that’s usually when you’re cooking a large meal with lots of elements, like a roast dinner.
“Putting them in the oven altogether means you’re using its full capacity, making it a more cost-effective option.
“Using the air fryer to cook individual parts – like roast potatoes, veg and meat – separately would mean having the device running constantly for hours.”
Figures from Uswitch suggest cooking a half leg of lamb, roast potatoes and puddings costs around 54p in a two kilowatt oven, using it for up to an hour.
But cook all these three items one after the other in a 1.4 kilowatt air fryer and it'll cost around 73p – 19p more expensive.
The price loophole has previously been explored by consumer champion who warned microwaves, as well as air fryers, aren't always cheaper than standard ovens.
He said : “If you're doing a jacket potato in the microwave for 10 minutes it's going to be far cheaper than doing a single jacket potato in an oven and keeping it on for an hour and a half.
“However if you were doing a full roast dinner and you were cooking many of them, that is where it's probably cheaper than putting five or six jacket potatoes in a microwave.
“This is because each additional object you put in a microwave, you need to keep it on longer because a microwave just heats the individual object.”
It's important to note that any savings you make using an oven compared to a microwave or air fryer are based on a number of variables and you won't always save .
For example, some items need to be boiled or cooked on the hob before being placed in the oven and finished off.
In any case, it's worth figuring out the cost of running your cooking appliances so you can work out how to make savings.
You can work out how much a device might cost you to run by doing a bit of simple maths.
The equation is: Cost = power (kilowatt) x cost of one kWh (pence) x the length of time.
You'll need to know how much you are being charged for one unit of gas or electricity though.
For example, if you have a two kilowatt electric oven, under the current price cap it currently costs you 54.06p to run per hour.
This is the current cost of one kilowatt of electricity (27.03p) multiplied by two.
How to monitor your energy usage
One quick way to monitor how much a specific appliance is costing is by using a smart plug.
These gadgets can tell you how much electricity an appliance is churning through.
Some also let you enter the price you pay for energy and then it works out the cost for you.
can also help you track the cost of energy by telling you how much energy you're using in real time.
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