Cooking For Engineers

[LiseS]

My husband thinks our small electric (60 Hz, 1500 watt) convection/toaster oven is evil. He thinks I should toss it and only use our conventional gas oven when the microwave is inappropriate. If someone can quantify the difference between baking something like a single loaf of pound cake in these types of ovens, I will discard the convection/toaster oven if it has a bigger carbon footprint and/or higher energy cost. Forgive me if this is a frequently asked question. I am a newbie.

[valtice]

Surely using a large oven will use more energy than a small oven. It will take longer to heat up and loose more energy through sheer surface area.

As for electricity versus gas, how is the electricity generated? If it's a fuel fired or neucleonic power station then I can't see any arguments for or against.

Until the hessian wearing hippies come up with a solar powered oven that will cook my pizza in 8 minutes on a cloudy day in February, I'm sticking to my 3 KW electric convection monster.

[mdgates]

Here's a quick test: close the kitchen doors and see which one heats up the room more. I bet it's the gas oven by far. Combustion appliances need air flow, while the electric toaster oven, though poorly insulated, loses heat only through its walls, and it has a small surface area to boot.

Electricity is 2-3 times more expensive than gas, but still, I bet the difference between the two ovens is on that order.

My gas oven is evil, and I do much more baking in the winter than the summer.