The Most Costly Appliance In Your Kitchen, And We All Have One

Appliances are a necessary part of a home. After all, you can't get far without a fridge to cool your food, or a microwave, oven, or stove to heat it up. While it's technically possible, it's not pleasant or very convenient. Unfortunately, with these appliances come expenses from constantly leaving them plugged in or running. When you think of the most costly appliance, you might consider only the initial cost to buy. Though fridges are always running, they're likely not the household appliance that consumes the most energy (that award goes to your HVAC system), or even the most energy-consuming one in your kitchen. In fact, the oven can use enough power to keep 65 refrigerators running at once. 

Ovens are actually the appliance that will set you back the most when it comes to cost and energy use. Even using it just an hour a day can cause the amount of power it uses to beat out all the other appliances in your kitchen. While fridges may run all the time, they are made to be efficient and trap in those cooler temperatures well, and won't use much power, especially if you don't regularly open the doors. However, ovens have to crank up temperatures very high in a relatively short amount of time. Baking on a hot day can definitely cause your home to get uncomfortably warm. Because of these factors, ovens require a lot more power to run when they are on.

An oven (not including the stove) uses about 2400 watts at any given time, while a fridge/freezer combo will use anywhere between 150 and 400 watts. To put it into something more understandable, a standard fridge and freezer combo uses roughly 116 kilowatt hours per month. If you have an Energy Star appliance, you're looking at closer to 50. In comparison, an oven uses 2 to 5 kWh per hour. You can expect it to total about 69 kWh per month. In total, you can expect an electric oven to use roughly 224 kWh per year, compared to the 200 kWh an energy-efficient fridge would use in the same window.

Even when it's not heating your food, it's draining power. It's estimated that most ovens use roughly 67 watts on standby, which may account for 5 to 26 percent of an annual household's energy use. And that's not including the additional stresses put upon your home. Ovens heat up a space quickly, which is going to force your AC to work harder and draw even more power.

This energy use leads to money coming out of your pocket. After all, thanks to their power usage, the most expensive appliances to run in your kitchen every year include ovens. Each state charges power a little differently, but an electric oven can set you back roughly $132 a year, whereas a gas one may only cost $90.

So what can you do about it? Obviously, plugging in and unplugging the stove all the time isn't feasible for everyone and can be quite a pain. Therefore, you have to reduce your power in other ways. One of the easiest and biggest options is meal planning and batch cooking. If you can cook several food items at the same time, then you can reduce how often you preheat and turn on your oven. This has several benefits, including reducing food waste and using less power. It can also free up the rest of your week. If you can, focus on meals you don't have to cook or that can be made on the stove as well, when possible.

Additionally, try to aim for cooking on cooler days. You might not be able to reduce how much power your oven uses, but because it heats up your house, it would mean your AC doesn't have to work as hard to cool it down. Another, more expensive option, is to switch to a gas stove if you can. Gas tends to use a lot less power than electricity, and can save you money in the long run. When it comes to the differences in cost and efficiency of gas compared to electric ovens, gas appliances can save you money, though they may not be as efficient as their counterparts.