Look to the slow cooker for a sneaky money-saver this fall.
Slow cooking transforms tough, inexpensive cuts of meat into melt-in-your-mouth dishes that rival upscale restaurants, all while requiring minimal hands-on time. These compact countertop devices consume significantly less electricity than your oven, helping reduce monthly utility costs.
With their straightforward operation, slow cookers shine during the cooler months when hearty meals are most appealing. Whether craving rich beef stew, robust chili, succulent pork shoulder, or perfectly shredded chicken, these versatile appliances work their magic unattended. Simply prep your ingredients in the morning, and return home to the aroma of a fully cooked meal waiting on your table.
To see how much you can save using a slow cooker instead of the oven, I priced out the cooking time and cost for a pork shoulder recipe — a relatively cheap cut of meat — using all three methods. The savings are significant; the more you use your slow cooker or multicooker, the greater they’ll get.
Oven, slow cooker and Instant Pot compared
| Appliance | Max wattage pull | Cost per hour of cooking | Total hours (6-lb. pork shoulder) | Total cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Large oven | 3,000 | $0.51 | 7 | $3.57 |
| Slow cooker (6-quart) | 260 | $0.05 | 8 | $0.40 |
| Instant Pot pressure cooker (6-quart) | 1,000 | $0.17 | 1.5 | $0.26 |
How I got these numbers
The easiest way to figure out how much a pressure or slow cooker might save you versus the big oven is to calculate the wattage pulled per hour, versus how much an electric stove would use. For this exercise, we’ll compare the energy draw from a full-size electric stove to that of a standard 6-quart slow cooker and a 6-quart Instant Pot pressure cooker.
It’s difficult to prorate the wattage pull for lower temperatures, so I calculated each appliance at its max energy draw, even though you probably won’t generally be cooking on high for these long sessions. The slow cooker and oven totals would likely drop a bit if they were set to lower temperatures, but the Instant Pot would not.
I used one of Food Network’s top-rated recipes for each to calculate the time needed and the total cost to cook a large pork shoulder (classic slow-cooked food) using all three appliances. It’s worth noting that pressure cooking with an Instant Pot takes significantly less time than slow cooking in an oven or a slow cooker.
Ovens are great for cooking low and slow but they use about 90% more energy than a countertop slow cooker.
How much does an electric oven cost to run?
To determine electric oven consumption, you’ll calculate the wattage pull per hour of cooking. Most electric ovens draw around 3,000 watts, depending on the temperature. Electricity rates also vary widely by state. To find yours, consult this chart with the 2022 prices listed in cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh).
Once you find your oven’s wattage (either on the appliance’s tag, the owner’s manual, or an online product listing), multiply that number by the number of hours you use the oven each day. Then, divide by 1,000 watts (1 kilowatt) to find the kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity consumed.
Next, determine the average price per kWh of electricity in your state for the year according to the US Energy Information Administration. Multiply that amount by the number you just calculated (3, in this example) to determine your daily operating cost.
Working with New York’s electricity rate of 17 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), a 3,000-watt oven would cost me about 51 cents per hour. Properly slow-cooking a 6-pound boneless pork shoulder in the main oven will cost about $3.57 for the full seven hours.
With a wattage pull of around 300 watts, appliances don’t get much more energy-efficient than the slow cooker.
How much does a slow cooker cost to run?
Slow cookers are also electric, so you’ll use the same methodology as above to find their cost. The wattage pull for slow cooker models varies; larger ones will use more energy. A standard 6-quart slow cooker has a max output of 260 watts.
Using these figures, we can determine that a slow cooker uses about 9% of the total energy draw of a large oven. Again, factoring in New York’s electricity costs, we can safely say a leading six-quart slow cooker will cost about 5 cents per hour. That’s 91% more energy-efficient than the average full-size electric oven. The pork shoulder recipe calls for eight hours of cooking, costing you about 40 cents using a slow cooker.
Due to a shorter overall cooking time, the Instant Pot (pressure cooker) turns out to be the most energy-efficient way to achieve that tender, slow-cooked result.
How much does an Instant Pot cost to run?
A similar recipe for pork shoulder cooked in an Instant Pot called for one hour of cooking for a four-pound pork shoulder cut into pieces. Instant Pots will draw different amounts of energy based on the setting. For pressure cooking, a standard 6-quart model will draw about 1,000 watts or one-third the energy draw of a big oven.
Knowing this, we can determine that in New York State, it will cost you about 17 cents per hour to pressure cook. Because this recipe is for a smaller pork shoulder cut into pieces, I’ll add 30 minutes to that cook time. That would net about 26 cents to cook a similar 6-pound cut of meat, not diced into pieces, in an Instant Pot.
You can make delicious pulled pork in an oven, slow cooker or Instant Pot but one will cost you significantly more in overall energy.
How much can a slow cooker or Instant Pot save you?
Of these three methods, the big oven is the most expensive way to cook low and slow by a good margin. While $3 of savings might seem small, expanding it out over a year of long braises and slow cooks could save you some serious dough on your overall energy bill. If you slow cook once weekly, that’s a quick savings of $150 for the year.
Every Instant Pot is also a slow cooker so there’s no real need to buy both.
All is not equal: One significant consideration
One big caveat is that these three cooking methods, while similar in some ways, don’t deliver the same results. Many swear by braising meats and slow cooking in the authentic oven, even if it takes longer and costs more. And they might not be wrong. With pressure cooking, for instance, I’ve never gotten precisely the same result as with slow oven-roasting, but specific recipes come pretty close. People are also critical of slow cookers for their propensity to make food appear mushy, not just tender, when used for long periods.
Bonus: Instant Pots are cheap and slow cookers, even cheaper
If trimming money from your monthly bill has drawn you to the slow cooker or Instant Pot, you likely don’t want to shell out a ton of money to buy one. The good news is you won’t have to: A 6-quart Instant Pot can be had for around $80 (less if you find one on sale) and slow cookers start at around $40. It’s also worth noting that every Instant Pot has a slow cooker function, so there’s no need to stock your kitchen with both.
