★ EVERYDAY · COOKING · COMPARISONS
The slow cooker saves $31.82 a year at the defaults: $31.82 against $63.65 for the oven. Enter your cooks per week, cook hours, wattage, and electricity price to see which appliance is cheaper in your kitchen.
A slow cooker sips power for hours; an oven gulps power for a short burst. Which one costs less over a year depends on how often you cook, how long each cook runs, and what you pay per kilowatt-hour — this calculator prices both at your numbers.
At the defaults, the slow cooker draws 200 W, which is 0.2 kW, for 6 hours per cook: 1.2 kWh per cook. Over 156 cooks a year that is 187.2 kWh, and at $0.17 per kWh it costs $31.82 a year. The oven draws 2400 W, or 2.4 kW, for 1 hour per cook: 2.4 kWh per cook, 374.4 kWh a year, and $63.65 at the same price. The oven uses exactly twice the energy per cook, so it costs exactly twice as much — and the yearly saving for the slow cooker is $31.82. That gap is the exact difference between the two unrounded costs; the two rounded totals happen to differ by $31.83, a one-cent rounding artifact, so the calculator reports the exact gap of $31.82. The gap scales with everything: cook five times a week and the saving grows to $53.04 a year; pay $0.30 per kWh and it grows to $56.16; stretch the oven to a 2-hour roast and it jumps to $95.47, because the oven's appetite per hour is so much larger. Stretch the slow cook to 8 hours and the saving shrinks to $21.22, but the slow cooker still wins.
This is an energy-cost comparison for one dish at a time, not a verdict on your whole kitchen. An oven batch changes the picture: one oven run can roast a chicken, vegetables, and potatoes together, while a slow cooker holds one pot. If one oven hour replaces three separate slow-cooker meals, the oven wins that night. Oven preheat also adds real energy — typically 10 to 15 minutes at full power before the food even goes in — which this calculator leaves out, so the oven's true cost is slightly higher than shown. And for short jobs the slow cooker loses outright: reheating a plate, crisping bread, or cooking something in 20 minutes is an oven (or microwave) job, not a six-hour one. The slow cooker's advantage lives exactly where its name says: long, low, unattended cooks — stews, braises, pulled pork, beans — where its tiny wattage over many hours still totals less than the oven's big wattage over one hour.
| Output | Formula | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Cooks per year | Cooks per week × 52 | 3 × 52 = 156 cooks at the defaults. |
| Slow cooker energy per cook | 200 W ÷ 1000 × 6 h | 1.2 kWh per cook at the defaults. |
| Slow cooker cost per year | 1.2 kWh × 156 cooks × $0.17 | 187.2 kWh × $0.17 = $31.82 a year. |
| Oven energy per cook | 2400 W ÷ 1000 × 1 h | 2.4 kWh per cook at the defaults. |
| Oven cost per year | 2.4 kWh × 156 cooks × $0.17 | 374.4 kWh × $0.17 = $63.65 a year. |
| Yearly saving | Oven total − slow cooker total | $63.65 − $31.82 in exact terms = $31.82 a year for the slow cooker. |
| Cost per cook | Yearly total ÷ 156 cooks | $0.20 slow cooker vs $0.41 oven per cook. |
This is an energy model, not a meter reading. It assumes each appliance draws its stated wattage for the full cook time, while real appliances cycle their heaters on and off — a slow cooker on low may average well under 200 W, and an oven cycles too once it reaches temperature. It excludes oven preheat, which raises the oven's true cost, and it prices one dish per cook, so multi-dish oven batches look worse here than they are in practice. Wattages vary by model: check the rating plate, and treat the result as the yearly energy gap at your rates and habits, before food cost or appliance price.
Bright Side Kit. "Slow Cooker vs Oven: Yearly Cooking Cost Calculator" https://brightoolbox.com/slow-cooker-vs-oven/ Accessed October 24, 2026.At the defaults, yes: $31.82 a year for the slow cooker against $63.65 for the oven, a saving of $31.82. The slow cooker draws only 200 W against the oven's 2400 W, and even over 6 hours it uses half the energy per cook.
$31.82 at the defaults: 200 W for 6 hours is 1.2 kWh per cook, 187.2 kWh over 156 cooks, at $0.17 per kWh. That is about $0.20 per cook.
$63.65 at the defaults: 2400 W for 1 hour is 2.4 kWh per cook, 374.4 kWh over 156 cooks, at $0.17 per kWh. That is about $0.41 per cook.
$31.82 a year at the defaults. At 1 cook a week the saving is $10.61; at 5 cooks a week it is $53.04; against a 2-hour oven roast it is $95.47.
No. The slow cooker wins on long, low cooks. For short jobs, or when one oven run cooks several dishes at once, the oven can win — and preheat aside, this calculator prices one dish per cook.
Then the slow cooker costs $56.16 a year and the oven $112.32, so the slow cooker saves $56.16. Higher prices widen the gap in the slow cooker's favour.
At 8 hours the slow cooker uses 1.6 kWh per cook, costing $42.43 a year, and still saves $21.22 against the 1-hour oven at $63.65.
Yes, slightly in the slow cooker's favour: preheat adds roughly 10 to 15 minutes at full oven power per cook, which this calculator leaves out, so the oven's true cost is a little higher than $63.65.