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Say I have to cook a small pan of some frozen fries @ 425F for 20 minutes. Gas (regular oven) is cheaper than electric (toaster oven), but the latter is a much smaller space. Is it generally more cost efficient to use the toaster oven? Would it matter if it's pizza for only 10 minutes?
In general, natural gas is going to be less expensive. However, since one of the by-products of combustion is water vapor, your pizza won't be as crusty. Cost differential is going to be in cents or part of a cent anyway.
Frozen fries would cook best in a convection toaster oven. I have a NuWave, however it's getting worn out so I'll probably replace it with a toaster type convection oven, lifting that top off the NuWave gets aggravating.
For a straight comparison need to know how much electric or gas each is using and your local rates otherwise there is no way to really say.
What I can tell you on average natural gas is about 1/3 the cost of electric per BTU in most areas so the natural gas oven could make 3 times the amount of heat before it cost more but it may need to make 3 times the heat because of the larger size. If you tell me your local rates I can give you a dollar to dollar comparison.
Other things to consider is if you heat your house in the winter certainly in the winter time the gas oven is your best bet. Instead of an oven we'll just call it a portable heater that conveniently heats food as well. Matter of fact if you had electric heat you could actually reduce your heating bills using the gas oven a lot and as a side benefit heat food. Of course the opposite would be true in the summer if you are using AC and the smaller electric oven might be cheaper when all things are considered.
We have gas stove/oven and our oven doesnt work (hasnt since we bought the house) so we use a George Foreman, Crockpot or Toaster Oven. Our gas bill has basically be under $50 (hot water heater) and our electric does not seem effected by using these small appliances instead.
It will still take 20mins whether reg oven or toaster, the TO doesnt change the cook time. I would use the TO because youre heating a small cooking element of maybe 12in compared to heating an entire oven with pre-heating and then baking 20mins.
If you were running a commercial kitchen, you'd notice a difference in the costs of running multiple large ovens for many hours a day.
For the very small direct energy costs of a home cook using an oven a few times a week, the difference is negligible, particularly when it's a toaster oven because the small size means it preheats much more quickly, pretty much wiping out any difference.
You do know how absurd that sounds?
They certainly are not running for FREE!
I'll admit that "effected" sounds "effected" (Affected is the correct word.) However, say that a toaster oven is 1,000 watts. Run it for an hour and that is 1 KWH. If that person uses one for 1/2 hour or less every day in a 30 day month, the maximum cost is 15 KWH times the rate. If the rate is .15/KWH, that is $2.25, which is less than the cost of a single pizza. A regular electric oven might use 1.5 times that amount as an off-the-cuff guess, which is not a particularly noticeable amount. If a pizza stone is used, it could cost twice the toaster oven cost. The cost of operation is not free, but may get lost in other costs. A couple of long soaking baths might end up costing more.
The greater issue is how you like your pizza cooked. Thin crust pizzas in restaurants can be cooked on bricks that are as high as 600 degrees, so that they have a particular crisp and fresh flavor. Frozen pizzas have to cook at lower temperatures to avoid cooked outsides and cold mushy insides. A pizza on a rack is going to lose more moisture from the bottom than one cooked on a pizza stone.
I'll admit that "effected" sounds "effected" (Affected is the correct word.) However, say that a toaster oven is 1,000 watts. Run it for an hour and that is 1 KWH. If that person uses one for 1/2 hour or less every day in a 30 day month, the maximum cost is 15 KWH times the rate. If the rate is .15/KWH, that is $2.25, which is less than the cost of a single pizza. A regular electric oven might use 1.5 times that amount as an off-the-cuff guess, which is not a particularly noticeable amount. If a pizza stone is used, it could cost twice the toaster oven cost. The cost of operation is not free, but may get lost in other costs. A couple of long soaking baths might end up costing more.
The greater issue is how you like your pizza cooked. Thin crust pizzas in restaurants can be cooked on bricks that are as high as 600 degrees, so that they have a particular crisp and fresh flavor. Frozen pizzas have to cook at lower temperatures to avoid cooked outsides and cold mushy insides. A pizza on a rack is going to lose more moisture from the bottom than one cooked on a pizza stone.
Thank you for clearing that up better than I could have- its exactly what i meant!
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Of course the opposite would be true in the summer if you are using AC and the smaller electric oven might be cheaper when all things are considered.
(Affected is the correct word.) However, say that a toaster oven is 1,000 watts. Run it for an hour and that is 1 KWH. If that person uses one for 1/2 hour or less every day in a 30 day month, the maximum cost is 15 KWH times the rate. If the rate is .15/KWH, that is $2.25, which is less than the cost of a single pizza. A regular electric oven might use 1.5 times that amount as an off-the-cuff guess, which is not a particularly noticeable amount. If a pizza stone is used, it could cost twice the toaster oven cost. The cost of operation is not free, but may get lost in other costs. A couple of long soaking baths might end up costing more.
