[Dogwalker]

What's the most energy efficient electric cooker these days?  Oven and hob.

I need a better back up for when my rayburn flue is playing silly and the few weeks each summer when it's too hot to light it.
At the moment I have a mini cooker with solid hobs which take forever to heat up then burn everything, each time I use it I swear it's the last time.

[Steph Hen]

Watching as I'm same boat.

[Scotsdumpy]

Watching with interest - hopefully doing up my kitchen after only 14 years of living here (the kitchen was on it's last legs when we moved in...) trying to future proof the house to enable us to live here past the age and ability to feed our two wood burners...

[mab]

Induction hob is most efficient - as it heats the pan itself. if you're simmering something on a low heat you can even wrap a cloth around the pan to keep the heat in ( though i don't recommend you do that as it could get very hot if the pan boils dry).


  They do require ferrous metal pans though: iron,  steel, magnetic stainless; they won't work with non-magnetic stainless, copper, etc.


For ovens i guess a fan oven would be best - though the amount of insulation in the walls of the oven  may be more relevant.

[macgro7]

We've got induction hob as well. And we are very happy with it.
I wanted to put a wood fired stove/oven as well forbwinter use - but that Will have to wait...

[SallyintNorth]

Induction is great for fast heat.  But the ones we’ve had - including commercial Lincat ones - are useless at long slow heat.  They burn everything.  And beep incessantly    and have horribly noisy fans.   

So think about what you want to cook before deciding on what device or devices you need.

If there’s two of you and you like stews, what about a crock pot.  If roasts, grills and bakes, how about a Remoska.  (Does good stews too.). Flash fry - well then I’d agree, the induction hob, but you may need to change your pans.  Or a gas hob; modern ones are much more controllable than they used to be, down to very low heat.  They’re always more of a faff to clean, though, if you get a spill.

[macgro7]

Our induction hob is perfect for both quick and slow.
And the fan - you can get very quiet ones! It's what you prefer and what your budget is!

[Dogwalker]

Thank you for the info, it gives me a starting point for further investigations.
I'm very happy with the way I cook on my woodburning rayburn, just need a back up.I tend to put a piece of meat in to slow cook for the day then prepare veg, mix bread dough and rev up the fire to heat the water and cook dinner in the late afternoon in between feeding animals etc.I don't want to spend ages over cooking and things like mince which most people think is quick I find a pita as I have to stand and watch it.  I like things I can leave to cook themselves.

[Steph Hen]

I'm struggling with the oil esse, maybe I could get some tips, Or advice please, please.

It does the cooking, hearing, hot water, shower.
It's not powerful enough for the whole house so there's elecric radiators in some rooms.

The oven is good for slow one pot cooking but to get anything to chrisp up it has to be flat out which means whole house is scorching and have to open all the windows.

The hob part never gets hot enough to get steak.

Using the hob cools the oven, so I find it tricky boiling veg just when I want the root veg in oven to chrisp up.

Using shower or bath cools the oven down.

It being on all the time seems incredibly inefficient.

Cooking has become utter guesswork and I've only been happy with a handful of meals I've cooked in these last 2 months.

Positives are lovely slow cooking, though unpredictable, the oven can give a different finish to normal ovens. It doesn't chrisp up sweet potato,  but four hours of slow radiant heat turns it to caramel buttery heaven!

I like the heritage and it'll work in a powercut.

We have to get a big wood burning stove in the sitting room this year (the chimney leaks and open fire leak smoke into the room and upstairs bedrooms so needs done). This would give us emergency heat and cooking surface for powercuts.

The spring is also a bit lower than upstairs so we have to top up with buckets in the attic ever so often. I feel there must be a better way.

Sorry this is long, it's running through my head.

[Dogwalker]

Cooking on a range is definitely an art that takes a while to get used to. I still get it wrong sometimes and can't guarantee crispy roast potatoes.I don't know anything about how oil-fired works.  Mine is wood and can vary with the weather.  I've learned how long it takes to heat up the oven or hob but once the fire is lit you can damp it down to a certain extent but not switch it off.  The water is always scalding hot and it does 5 radiators rather than the 2 it's supposed to be able to do.  It's a small cottage.But I've had problems with the flue getting clogged up for years, more to do with how the liner was installed than wet wood as I keep getting told, so sometimes it's just not going to get hot whatever I do.
Once the oven's hot mine keeps the heat, it doesn't vary much by water being used.It's a huge lump of cast iron.

[Steph Hen]

I said I’d give the cooker till next summer to try to get along.   It’s maxed out with the size of the house and radiators it’s asked to do. There’s an electric pump to get hot radiator water upstairs, maybe this just takes too much heat away from it, making it difficult?  Although I also feel life is too short: my son has to have a strict diet, so I’m always cooking and in this battle!

Yesterday the archaic pipe from the spring gave up and burst under the yard so we’ve no running water. Puts a new perspective on things - there’s nothing quite like not having to make me grateful!

[cloddopper]

 I offer that you save your money and keep the counter top space &  get a big microwave with a browning facility,  they use little power and you can cook all sorts .

 Add to that one of the plug in  halogen roasters with several stacking rings and an air fryer & you're set up  to cook  using a small generator if the mains also fails . 

The final bit of kit .. a 7 pint or bigger three levels of heat slow cooker for making :-

Bread , puddings , stews , soups , stock making jams curries & big  volumes of sauces  etc .You can also put the slow cooker on a mechanical time clock to have porridge in the morning & use it as a bain-marie.

 Or as we did when the heating oil delivery didn't happen in time & sometimes do overnight in the caravan is to use it as a dry heat room heater. 

What we did do was also buy two of each of a 2, 1 &1/2 pint Pyrex jugs  as not only can you use them in the microwave as pans you can also can do things like make  delicious  scrambled egg that's soft moist & creamy  .

We also had & still have a big Corning  microwave dish with lid that goes in the microwave .
There is a metal plate in the  bottom encased in glass .. you can fry on it if you choose to as well as brown meat & capsicum peppers , onions or asparagus or cook steaks or slow cook stews etc. ,

I found cooking with the above gear ( less the air fryer as they are a recent invention ) for all meals for a couple of years without an oven & hob a doddle , as the Pyrex jugs retain lot of heat you learn that it's often better to part cook in the jugs & let the residual heat finish them off in the jug  rather than trying to juggle a tight cooking timed sequence schedule

 Obviously there were somethings I couldn't cook , but it's likely I never had any inkling to cook them in the first place .   

[Lesley Silvester]

I used to use a Rayburn on solid fuel but cooking was a bit hit and miss depending on the direction of the wind. It would be very high for hours so I would make a huge batch of bread dough and put it on to rise, As soon as it was ready to go in, the oven temperature would drop. Same as when it was a good temperature for cake making and would go up high as soon as the cake was ready to bake. For all that, I did love my Rayburn.

[Buttermilk]

After years of a superb solid fuel range I got a combination microwave for everyday use.  Now the range has gone (husband blew it up!) and I rely on nothing else but the combination microwave.  When planning a new kitchen the chappie who came could not believe that I was having a kitchen with no cooker.  I got talked into putting in a two ring induction hob which has been used twice in 4 years, once to fry an egg and once to boil some dye stuff for my fluff to go in.  I do use my slow cooker a lot though.

[honeyend]

A good low energy cooker is a Romoska, as it only uses 400w. Its simple and there is nothing to break
 https://www.lakeland.co.uk/31945/Standard-Remoska-Electric-Cooker-with-Glass-Lid-2L?gclid=Cj0KCQjw3uboBRDCARIsAO2XcYBL4TXXQCqGb1m08Up0tSH4zu9tuEoqm5YLob5z63rkXNtvO6K18VkaAr6xEALw_wcB&src=gfeed&efid=Cj0KCQjw3uboBRDCARIsAO2XcYBL4TXXQCqGb1m08Up0tSH4zu9tuEoqm5YLob5z63rkXNtvO6K18VkaAr6xEALw_wcB:G:s&s_kwcid=AL!49!3!285143337355!!!g!297220728681!&ev_chn=shop&ef_id=Cj0KCQjw3uboBRDCARIsAO2XcYBL4TXXQCqGb1m08Up0tSH4zu9tuEoqm5YLob5z63rkXNtvO6K18VkaAr6xEALw_wcB:G:s