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(UK) Could ditching the oven this winter help bring your energy bill down? How the much-maligned microwave cooks food at a fraction of the price
FOR MAILONLINE ^ | 28 August 2022 | By CHRIS MATTHEWS

Posted on 08/29/2022 7:24:26 AM PDT by dennisw

Could ditching the oven this winter help bring your energy bill down? How the much-maligned microwave cooks food at a fraction of the price - with a jacket potato costing 24p less to bake

Research has suggested it is far cheaper to cook essential food in microwaves

Microwaving a jacket potato costs 24p less than baking it in a traditional oven

Cooking your food in a microwave could be a way to save on energy bills as the cost of living crisis soars in Britain's colder months.

UK energy customers are set for a tight few months, if not longer, as price caps rise.

Ofgem confirmed on Friday that there will be an 80 per cent rise in the price cap - sending the average household's yearly bill from £1,971 to £3,549 from October 1st, with further adjustments on December 31st.

Research has suggested that it is far cheaper to cook essential food in microwaves than traditionally in an oven.

Research by energy supplier Utilita found that using a microwave only costs £30 a year, while an electric cooker costs £316 for the same time period.

Meanwhile, uSwitch said it would cost you roughly 27p to cook a baked potato in the oven but just 3p in the microwave.

Microwaving broccoli costs 1p as opposed to 6p on a hob and poaching an egg is a third of the price.

Even Michelin-starred celebrity chef Tom Brown has revealed he sometimes opts to use the microwave to cook certain dishes.

'There's a lot of food that is great when done in the microwave,' Brown told The Times.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Food
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To: fwdude

I hide my microwave, it will never be featured in my kitchen.
I will hang on to my beautiful oven until they pry my cold dead hands from the red knob. LOL

At 92 I still cook every day. I like good food.


21 posted on 08/29/2022 7:37:32 AM PDT by Doctor Congo
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To: C210N

Now I’m hungry ; )


22 posted on 08/29/2022 7:38:03 AM PDT by leaning conservative (snow coming, school cancelled, yayyyyyyyyy!!!!!!)
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To: rlmorel

[[not to “save damned energy to reduce my carbon footprint”.]]

New “climate laws” coming to a city near you soon. Once they get really going wit the “climate change” no sense, they are gon a regulate everything. Thr new job for police will be making sure folks obey the new climate laws. Criminals will be able to get away with murder, but use an oven instead of the microwave, and the powers that be see your electric usage isnt “what it should be accosing to the law” , and they come swooping in.

Some nations are a,ready doing crap like this. Ny znd other states are now gonna ban furnaces, stoves etc that use wood or fossil fuels in all new construction, to be followed by laws forcing peoplle with older houses to “upgrade” to electric. There defiantly is a r3ason why they are forcing everyone onto electric. Easier to generate or soemthing.


23 posted on 08/29/2022 7:38:06 AM PDT by Bob434 (question)
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To: C210N

“I’m gonna stick with covered with foil”

just don’t try that in a microwave! :-)


24 posted on 08/29/2022 7:38:08 AM PDT by catnipman (In a post-covid world, ALL "science" is now political science: stolen elections have consequences)
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To: dennisw
LOL. That's like trying to fix a faucet leak when there's a tsunami bearing down on you.

Yeah, a whole lot of good switching to the microwave will do when you have this little problem -->

Price of wholesale electricity in the UK reaches $1.17 per Kilowatt Hour
Posted on 8/29/2022, 7:10:48 AM by brookwood

The price of wholesale electricity has a “futures” market. Companies are paying now to lock in their energy costs next winter. In the UK the cost for electricity in December 22 has risen to 1,000 British pounds per megawatt hour which is about $1.20 per kilowatt hour. This is 6 times the average price in the US.


25 posted on 08/29/2022 7:38:17 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (“May your neighbors respect you, trouble neglect you, angels protect you and heaven accept you”)
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To: dennisw

The microwave oven is a great invention. No surprise though, that people who don’t bother to learn how to use it think it’s no good.


26 posted on 08/29/2022 7:39:21 AM PDT by hinckley buzzard ( Resist the narrative.)
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To: fwdude

Agreed, they are good for leftovers and frozen foods. For fresh foods the microwave destroys both texture and flavor.

This article is just another mindless leftist attempt to get us to go all electric, while they keep shutting down power generating plants.


27 posted on 08/29/2022 7:40:51 AM PDT by redfreedom (You can vote your way into socialism, but you may have to shoot your way out.)
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To: leaning conservative

I’ve recently learned that “pre-heating” an oven is not always necessary for most items. The only reason cookbooks recommend that is to get the cooking time consistent. Heating an oven with the food in it actually helps to heat the food more uniformly without overcooking the exterior.


28 posted on 08/29/2022 7:41:00 AM PDT by fwdude (Racism is not dead, but it is on life support - kept alive by politicians….” — Thomas Sowell)
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To: dennisw

Learn/re-learn to use a pressure cooker. Cooks faster with less energy consumed. Not for baking of course.

Just to poke the bear here: during the day, we can run the electric oven (or the microwave) for ‘free’ since we have residential solar.


29 posted on 08/29/2022 7:41:20 AM PDT by Blueflag (Res ipsa loquitur: ad ferre non, velit esse sine defensione)
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To: fwdude

“That’s kind of their problem and shouldn’t affect me. “

oh, but it does: petro commodities are to a large degree fungible, and to an increasing degree are priced internationally ... only non-fungible factor is transportability, which affects NG the most ... but NG prices are predicted to double in the U.S. this winter as the EU bids up prices to replace russkie NG and their stupidity in shutting down their nukes and coal burners ...


30 posted on 08/29/2022 7:42:08 AM PDT by catnipman (In a post-covid world, ALL "science" is now political science: stolen elections have consequences)
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To: dennisw

And there you go! Before you know it they’re gonna force us to live in caves or wooden shacks!


31 posted on 08/29/2022 7:42:24 AM PDT by RoseofTexas
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To: catnipman

Effective borders use to mitigate the fungibility of international markets. I guess we know what happened to that.


32 posted on 08/29/2022 7:43:15 AM PDT by fwdude (Racism is not dead, but it is on life support - kept alive by politicians….” — Thomas Sowell)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

$1.17 per kWh??? Insane

We pay about NINE CENTS per kWh, plus base fees that knock it up to about 11 or 12 cents per kWh.

They WANT to k i l l people, especially pensioners it seems.


33 posted on 08/29/2022 7:43:31 AM PDT by Blueflag (Res ipsa loquitur: ad ferre non, velit esse sine defensione)
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To: dennisw

Sad the Brits have allowed their politicians to sacrifice them on the altar of climate change. I expect hundreds if not thousands of elderly Brits will die from the effects of hypothermia this winter.


34 posted on 08/29/2022 7:45:35 AM PDT by The Great RJ
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To: dennisw

During cold weather, the oven warms the kitchen when you use it, allowing other sources of heat to relax, temporarily. So that excess heat is not entirely wasted.

I don’t use my oven during the summer because it warms the place when heat is not needed.


35 posted on 08/29/2022 7:45:43 AM PDT by I want the USA back (Damn it! We need Trump! America First! Bring America back! We're being governed by fascists.)
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To: Doctor Congo

You hide the microwave while some of us hide the TV. So, what are your favorite foods at a strong 92 vs when you were half that age?


36 posted on 08/29/2022 7:47:05 AM PDT by Monterrosa-24 (To the barricades !!!)
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To: dennisw

I’ll zap corn on the cob especially during the summer. Don’t want to heat up house.


37 posted on 08/29/2022 7:48:46 AM PDT by mware
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To: Doctor Congo

Bravo...in our newly remodeled kitchen, there is no Microwave. I will buy a small one and stick it in the pantry, for guests who might want to heat something. I only used mw for heating water for cleaning. But, now I use an electric pot for that. I hope to be like you when I am your age!


38 posted on 08/29/2022 7:51:34 AM PDT by goodnesswins (The Chinese are teaching calculus to their 3rd graders while ours are trying to pick a pronoun.)
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To: fwdude

In my opinion, microwave ovens are only good for warming stuff up. They do not “cook” anything satisfactorily.

Indeed. Excellent food reheaters or defrosters.

One issue with attempting to cook in a microwave is that the greater the number of portions you cook, the more the cooking time required.


39 posted on 08/29/2022 7:51:38 AM PDT by Flick Lives (FJB and the corrupt FBI)
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To: Blueflag

In fairness, that’s the wholesale price and it might be a spot market price. But, still, the Brits are paying SIX TIMES at retail than we are.

When I worked in the power industry, the norm was 3 cents, but 3X inflation over 50 years easily gets you to 9 cents.


40 posted on 08/29/2022 7:53:47 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (“May your neighbors respect you, trouble neglect you, angels protect you and heaven accept you”)
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