WHICH IS MORE EXPENSIVE TO RUN?

[Dee Sa]

I bought a halogenoven but the bulb blew and I got my money back, before I buy another I am wondering is it cheaper to cook with the halogen oven or use the normal electric oven to say cook an joint for four people as an example.

[jomifl]

You need a certain amount of heat to cook a joint, if that heat is supplied by electricity then it doesnt matter what kind of heating element you have. It will cost the same. What might be important is how long do the elements/bulbs last and how much do they cost. I have never known a standard metal element to fail but if halogen elements have a life shorter than the oven then I would go for the standard ones.

[Buenchico]

Jomifl's post seems to ignore the concept of 'efficiency'.

A typical halogen cooker is rated at 1300W, so it will cost you around 15p per hour to use it (based upon a typical tariff)

A conventional electric oven, used at the highest heat setting, might be using 4000W, costing you about 45p per hour. However at lower temperatures, the power consumption will be lower (perhaps 2000W or so), resulting in costs in the range of 20p to 25p per hour.

Chris

[Dee Sa]

many thanks to both, think I will invest in another halogen one, Chris your a marvel with all your knowledge, hats off to you
Dee

[Dodger666]

Our conventional Hotpoint double oven is just over five years old and had already had two replacement main oven elements due to them blowing. Luckily it was still under guarantee when they blew. Next time it goes I will have to replace it myself.

[Quizmonster]

I could well be wrong, Dee Sa, but I feel sure I once advised you against buying a halogen oven at all simply BECAUSE of the tendency of their elements/bulbs to blow and because of the fact that they are not user-repairable. Now that has happened to YOU and you've decided to get another! All I can say is, "Good luck to you!"
When it happened to me, I bought a Remoska...quite a bit more expensive, but a vastly more sturdy and dependable piece of kit. Google it and see what you think.

[jomifl]

Hi buenchico, I am not sure that the principle of efficiency applies here. A 1000watt heating element uses 1000watts and gives out 1000watts If it didn't it would be doing something strange with the electricity. That applies to all resistive heating elements whether they are halogen or anything else. They are in fact 100% efficient within the oven. The only electrical loss of efficiency overall is the resistive losses in the cable between your cooker and your electricity meter. If you have the correct wiring and fuse in the circuit then these losses will be negligeable and will be the same for any kind of resistive heating element. The biggest influence on overall efficiency of the oven is how well it is insulated and sealed. Since the air in the oven has a very small thermal capacity it doesn't really matter what the volume inside the oven is as long as the heat losses to the outside via conduction are the same. If halogen ovens heat food by radiation then the food will heat up a little quicker, but a well designed convection/fan oven would give more even heating with minimal localised heating.

[jomifl]

Hi again Buenchico, the total power consumption of an oven is not simply the product of the wattage of the elements x cooking time x cost per kilowatt hour. The duty cycle of the elements is as important as anything else. If they are on for half the time then they use half as much electricity.( I know that when they are cold they will draw slightly more current but it is an insignificant amount). It all comes down to insulation.

[Buenchico]

Thanks for your post, Jomifl.

My reference to different temperatures relates to the possible average power consumption. (At the highest temperature the element might be onf or all, or most, of the time. At lower temperatures it will be on for less often). So I've tried to build in the factors you refer to.

Chris

[FantasticMrHerb]

Not sure if anyone will ever follow-up on this answer, but I stumbled across it and had to make a couple corrections. Jomifl, while you are correct in saying that 1000W should equal 1000W for any appliance theoretically, you forget about the basic efficiency of appliances and efficiency of different energy transfer. The crux of the matter here is that whilst conventional electric ovens transfer electrical energy into heat by passing current over a heating element, a halogen oven produces much of its heat as light, in the form of IR waves. Conventional ovens and heating elements are very efficient at heating by conduction (hence the rapid-boil of a kettle), but do not transfer as effectively over distances (i.e, the space inside the oven). This, along with the inherent time needed to bring the element to temperature, results in a relatively slow warming up rate, resulting in wasted energy. The halogen oven, by comparison, reaches its maximum temperature relatively quickly. While the amount of power given to it may be the same, the heating element and method of transfer (both convection and transfer by IR waves) are much more efficient than convection alone. For a good analogy, an energy-saving bulb can emit more light than an incandescent bulb of equal wattage. The quicker rate of warming and more efficient method of transferring energy (by waves instead of convection) means that a halogen oven will always be more efficient at cooking food than a conventional oven of equal rating. This effect is made more obvious when we consider that a halogen oven typically cooks food faster than a conventional oven, even though its power ratings are typically lower.
To conclude, halogen ovens are cheaper to run than conventional ovens.