Do air fryers consume a lot of electricity?
Air fryers are essential kitchen appliances that help you cook food using little to no oil. Air frying is a method of preparing healthy foods, and the results have a crunchy texture like that of deep-fried foods. Instead of using hot oil for cooking food, an air fryer uses hot air generated by a heating element and circulated by a fan to facilitate even cooking.
It also helps to cut your food preparation time significantly.
But how much electricity do air fryers use?
Is the amount of electricity that air fryers consume dependent on the model, the amount of time the machine is on, or its capacity?
When you want to buy a kitchen appliance like air fryers, you need to find out the initial cost of the appliance (see best budget options) and the subsequent price of using the device.
So, is running air fryers cost-effective?
Air Fryer Wattage?
Air fryers come out as an energy-efficient and economical kitchen appliance considering the many benefits it offers. For instance, the kitchen appliances use hot air for cooking your food and giving it a crunchy and crisp taste, just like a deep fryer. Due to its compact size, the food is near the heating element, which enables it to cook fast.
As such, the kitchen appliance cooks your food in a few minutes, saving you time, which is cost-efficient.
Most air fryers have a wattage ranging from 800W to 2175W for high-end air fryers. The average wattage of air fryers is about 1425W. The higher the wattage of an air fryer, the more the temperatures it can generate.
An air fryer also comes out as a cost-efficient kitchen appliance when you compare it with other appliances. For instance, ovens' wattage ranges from 1000W to 5000W and has an average of 2400W.
Additionally, an air fryer wattage ranges between 1500W to 1800W.
As such, an air fryer uses less power to help you cook your food. Combine that with the fact that the kitchen appliance uses less time to cook your food.
An Air Fryer's Size and Electricity
One of the factors that determine how much electricity your air fryer uses to cook your food is the size of the kitchen appliance.
If you want to cook more food for a larger family or you often host friends, you may require a larger air fryer (see 'Best Air Fryer for Family of 4' here). The large air fryer is suitable if you want to save time and money when you have more mouths to feed.
However, cooking more food using an air fryer means you require more power.
Air fryers work by heating the amount of air in the chamber, hot enough that it can cook food. If the air fryer has more space and the capacity is high, you will require more power to heat the air inside.
As such, there is a direct correlation between the size of an air fryer and the amount of electricity it consumes.
Air Fryer's Settings and Electricity
Most air fryers, especially the ultra-modern ones, come with various settings.
Most of the air fryer's settings are on digital panels that enable you to adjust the kitchen appliance based on the food you want to cook. Of course, it also depends on a variety of other variables, including time, capacity, and the texture of the food you want to achieve.
As such, some of the settings you will use on the device will increase the amount of power required to run the machine.
An example of how the kitchen appliance can use more power due to the settings is using the machine's optional light.
Air fryers have a window at the front. Turning on the light will help you see your food better.
You can also have an air fryer with a number of different settings that allow you to bake, air fry, broil, roast, dehydrate, and even rotisserie your food.
Each of the settings will require a varying amount of power.
While some other kitchen appliances come with varying indicators of watts, air fryers don't come with one. As such, you may not tell if turning on the light or setting the kitchen appliance to dehydrate food can affect the number of watts the device uses. You may not tell how much effect the kitchen appliance is having on your electricity bill.
However, it is still vital that you consider the type of settings a kitchen appliance comes with.
The Food You Cook in an Air Fryer and Electricity
The food you cook using an air fryer can also affect the amount of electricity the appliance will consume.
There are two ways in which the food you cook using an air fryer can affect the amount of electricity the appliance will consume.
The two factors include the amount of food you want to cook and how long it takes for the food to cook.
For instance, it may take you about 15 minutes to cook a chicken breast using an air fryer. If you want to cook two chicken breasts, the time may increase to 20 minutes (see also 'Best Air Fryers for Chicken' review and 'Best Air Fryers for Chicken Wings' post).
While it takes you about 20 minutes to cook two chicken breasts, it will take you about 15 minutes to cook fries from frozen.
The amount of electricity an air fryer consumes depends on how long the kitchen appliance is turned on. How long the kitchen appliance will remain depends on the amount of time you require to cook a certain type of food and the amount of food you want to cook.
It isn't much you can do to get around the challenge of time. If you need to cook two chicken breasts for two family members, it has to be two chicken breasts. The amount of time it will take to cook and the amount of electricity the appliance will consume doesn't matter.
If you are planning on cooking for many people in batches or cooking more than two ingredients, it will be best to employ some cost-efficient hacks. For instance, you can use an air fryer basket splitter or stack your air fryer using an air fryer rack. This will be more energy-efficient than running your air fryer more than once.
Same Food, Size, and Settings: Varied Amount of Electricity Consumed
If you thought the issue of power consumption in air fryers is confusing, you have seen nothing yet.
If you take two air fryers of the same settings, cook the same amount of food, use the same settings, and cook for the same amount of time, you could still notice a variance in energy consumption.
The variance can boil down to the design of the air fryer and the manufacturer.
For instance, you can get an air fryer from the same company, same capacity but with a difference of about 100 watts. So a person using an air fryer with 100 watts more could end up paying more for energy consumption than the others.
Energy Supply and Power Consumption
Two people can buy the same air fryer from the store and use it for the same time in a week. However, the cost of running the machine can vary based on the cost of energy in each home.
Are Air Fryers Economical?
One factor that separates air fryers from other kitchen appliances is the time it takes to reach cooking temperatures. Unlike a convection oven, an air fryer doesn't require time to preheat.
An air fryer cooks food using hot air. The hot air generated by a heating coil circulates in the chamber using a mechanical fan and the convection mechanism.
The convection method enables warm air heated by the heating element to rise to the top while cold air is pushed to the bottom of the air fryer. When the air at the bottom is heated, it starts to circulate.
Unlike a conventional oven, the air in an air fryer takes a short time to reach cooking temperatures due to its compact size. The bigger the size of the chamber inside the device, the longer it will take for the air inside to heat.
As such, the restricted space inside an air fryer is advantageous as it reduces the heating time, thereby minimizing the power consumption.
The powerful heating and the small size of the air fryer also ensures that your food gets cooked fast. The longer a device will take in cooking food, the more energy consumption.
Are Air Fryers Suitable for Campers?
Camping requires that you scale down on some items, but it can be fun and comfortable if you have the right tools.
An air fryer is perfect for camping as it has a compact size that enables it to store. It is also easy to clean, and it requires limited space for you to cook. It also cooks your food fast.
However, it may not prepare food for a large family at once, and you might be forced to do it in batches.
Final Thoughts
An air fryer is considered an energy-efficient kitchen appliance. However, its electricity use will vary depending on various factors, including the amount of food, how long the food will cook, etc.