Want to learn about crock pot cooking,
and its energy usage? You've come to the right place.
We're gonna talk a little about crock pot cooking
and its energy consumption here. To learn more about
crock pot cooking in general, see
this article.
The question about how the energy usage
of crock pot cooking compares to stove cooking is
often asked. To compare this, many factors need to
be considered such as crock pot and oven size, cooking
time, and cooking temperature.
When a crock pot is cooking, it runs
on very low energy, cooking at low temperatures -
hence slow cookers. An oven works on a more cyclical
basis, where it cycles on and off, but cooking times
are much shorter than crock pot cooking.
Some ovens run at 120volts, some 220,
240 etc... Lets say we're using a stove with 220volts
X 10amps = 2200watts in an hour. The oven's heating
element is controlled by the temperature of the oven
(which you set), so it's turned on and off to maintain
a desired temperature. The heat is kept in the oven
by the insulation. So during one hour, the heating
element is turned on and off a few times. Depending
on your oven and the temperature, the heating element
may only be used for a fraction of an hour, say 10
or 15 minutes. So, really, your energy consumption
is only 1/4 X 2200 = 550 watts (maybe more, maybe
less).
Crock pots run at 120volts with low
amps. If we cook with a crock pot that runs at 120v
X 1.5amps = 180 watts (This is about medium heat).
If we let the crock pot cook for 8 hours, you get
180 X 6 = 1080.
So you see, crock pot cooking could
actually use twice as much energy as using ovens!
Of course, keep in mind that different pots, with
different sizes, amps etc... will have different results.
If you had a small crock pot, you'd be using less
energy.
Thinking twice about crock pot cooking
now? Energy concerns got you down? Sick of cooking
crock pot too often? There
is a time saving alternative to crock pot cooking,
find out how... Back to
Healthy Cooking Recipes home page |
