Are air fryers energy efficient? We crunch the numbers

Energy costs are ever rising, so investing in energy efficient appliances is a sensible way to help keep the costs down. Air fryers can help you to save money and can also be cheaper than cooking with your oven. The reason? It’s because they’re more energy efficient for certain types of cooking jobs. But what does that actually mean?

Energy efficiency simply means using less energy to get the same job done. In fact, many homes and products use more energy than they need to because of energy waste and inefficient products. We’ll look into this and how it relates to air fryers further as we go through this guide.

What is an air fryer?

Our ‘What is an air fryer’ guide goes into answering this question in more detail, but in a brief summary, an air fryer is a piece of cooking equipment that uses convection heat to cook and crisp foods that would typically be deep fried. The air fryer circulates hot air to cook food in a similar fashion to a fan oven, using a chemical process known as the Maillard reaction to crisp up the food’s exterior. And, since air fryers use little (if any) oil, they can be a far healthier alternative to deep fat frying. See our guide ‘Are air fryers healthy’ for more details on this.

Are air fryers energy efficient?

“Air fryers are an incredibly versatile appliance and make it easier than ever to cost-effectively cook the food you love,” explains Hannah Hamer, assistant marketing manager at Russell Hobbs. “As they use a lot less electricity in comparison to a traditional electric oven, you can save both time and energy in the kitchen.”

The amount of energy an air fryer uses depends on the type, size, temperature and the amount of time it’s being used for. When it comes to air fryer types, there are three main ones to choose from:

• Single basket air fryers – These tend to be of a smaller design, such as the Tower T17023, and are used for cooking single items at a time.
• Dual basket air fryers – Offer a larger capacity with two removable baskets – the Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer, for example. Can be used to book multiple items at once, often at different times and temperatures.
• Air fryer ovens – Including the Tefal Easy Fry or the Proscenic T31, air fryer ovens are larger and designed to allow users to cook multiple items at once at the same temperature. Designed to look and act more like a traditional oven, only smaller.
• Multi-function air fryers – These are air fryers combined with other pieces of equipment, such as pizza ovens, dehydrators and grills. Multi-function air fryers, like the Ninja Speedi or the Instant Pot Duo Crisp, can be a great idea for those who don’t have space for multiple appliances in their kitchens. They do, however, have a large footprint.

In general a large capacity air fryer oven will use more electricity than a single basket air fryer. As air fryers work by heating the air inside to a hot temperature, a larger space is going to take longer to heat up and therefore use more electricity. But Marcus Lux, head of UK, export and business development at Gastroback reminds us to look at wider factors, “Most models are likely to have a fast heat-up time but to get the best out of your air fryer in terms of energy-efficiency, look for adjustable temperatures, adjustable time and heating elements which are separately controlled”.

How much electricity does an air fryer use?

Looking to get down into the nitty-gritty and calculate exactly how much electricity it takes to run an air fryer? There is a simple equation you can use to calculate this.

Multiply the device’s wattage by the number of hours you use it per day and then divide this number by 1,000 to get the daily kilowatt hour reading. So, for example, using a 1,400W air fryer for an hour a day can use a maximum of 1.4kWh of electricity per day.

However, it’s important to remember that this is a maximum and that cooking temperatures and the function you’re using will all have an impact on how much energy your air fryer uses. In reality, you might find that it’s using far less than the calculation suggests.

To give a couple of real world examples, we tested the Instant Vortex Plus Dual Drawer air fryer and found that it used just 0.99kWh at 200°C with both baskets running on the Air Fry setting and 0.55kWh with a single basket running for an hour. However, the stated wattage is 1,700W, which would lead to 1.7kWh being consumed in that time. Meanwhile, the Tefal Easy Fry 3in1 used only 0.68kWh at 200°C in our testing – one of the most energy efficient models we’ve tested.

How much does it cost to run an air fryer?

In order to work out how much it costs to run an air fryer, you need to know what you’re paying per kWh. Following the new energy price cap announced in October 2024, the highest price you could be paying is £0.25 per kWh. What does this mean in real terms? Here are a few specific examples so you can see the costs of various air fryers:

• Tefal Easy Fry 10-in-1 Air Fryer Oven – 0.947kWh = £0.23 per hour *
• Salter Fuzion, both compartments, no divider – 1.056kWh = £0.26 per hour *
• Salter Fuzion, drawer one, divider in place – 0.584kWh = £0.14 per hour *

*Prices correspond to October 2024 energy costs, rounded to the nearest pence.

The most common wattages for air fryers are typically 1,500W, 1,700W and 2,400W but in reality, it’s unlikely that your air fryer would ever use that much power consistently over your cooking time.

Is it cheaper to use an air fryer than an electric oven?

In most cases it will be cheaper to use an air fryer than an electric oven. An air fryer requires less kWh to reach its maximum temperature. This should be fairly obvious, as an electric oven is far larger than an air fryer and requires more time to heat up. When you consider that the average air fryer has a capacity of around two to ten litres (although some go higher), vs an average of 60 to 70 litres for an oven, it’s no surprise the latter is more expensive to run. We’ve got a full comparison in our dedicated air fryer vs oven article.

Can an air fryer save money?

The short answer is yes, but you do need to think sensibly and buy the right air fryer for your needs. If you have a large family, a small air fryer isn’t going to be big enough to feed everyone and you’ll just end up having to have the oven on as well, increasing your costs, instead of reducing them. But likewise, it might turn out to be a cost saver for those occasions when you only want to cook for one or two.

So do your research before you invest in an air fryer. There are air fryer ovens available that can hold up to 24l, right down to small 4l basket air fryers.