What does an electric oven cost to run?
Around 40p an hour — less than the 2kW on the badge suggests, because the element is off more than it is on.
Typical model is rated 2,100W
Price cap is 26.11p
42p per hour, 260 hours a year, 416 kWh in total — about £9 a month.
A fan oven draws around 2kW while heating up, then cycles the element on and off to hold temperature. Averaged over an hour that comes to roughly 1.6kWh, not 2. The heavier and better-insulated the oven, the longer it coasts between cycles.
Preheating is where the avoidable money goes. Ten minutes of preheating for something that then cooks for fifteen is a third of the total cost spent on an empty box. Most things that are not baking do not need it.
The oven wins outright when it is full. Cooking four things at once costs the same as cooking one, which no air fryer can match. If you are going to run it, run it hard.
The short answer: About 40p an hour. Cook several things at once and it is the cheapest way to cook there is.
What actually helps
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This is the small stuff
Every appliance on this site put together is usually less than a third of a typical energy bill. Heating the house is the rest of it. If the numbers here bothered you, the number that actually matters is what your heating costs — and whether a heat pump would make it better or worse in your particular house.
Work out your heating costOther appliances
Energy figures checked 2026-08-26. Electricity priced at the Ofgem cap for 1 July – 30 September 2026. Your own machine and tariff will differ — put your figures in above.