Porthos

The second half of this search for comparative energy costs will not be happening. I've run into a road block. I can't reach the power cord for my range to plug it into the Kill-A-Watt meter. Since I would be doing this with the convection fan on, the same as when I measured the toaster oven, and I have no idea how much power the fan draws so I can't even begin to dry-lab that part of the energy consumption, I can't get an accurate total measurement. Being 61 and partially disabled isn't all champagne wishes and caviar dreams. I am happy, however, that I found that the cost of using the toaster oven to roast veggies is quite a bit less than I expected. Since roast veggies are not the norm for my dinners (I steam most of the veggies I serve) I am going to walk away happy with the knowledge I did gain.

I don't care for peanut butter cookies but my DW and my FIL always really enjoy them made with the recipe in this link: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/280194. It's a staple for vacation and for Christmas cookie tins. It's a few entries down and is from dixieday. I have a Word Document version that I could PM you if your interested. As an aside, I hope to someday figure out how to link replacing the URL with my own text.

For reasons that are not important here we have changed from using 2% milk to 1% milk in our household. When making a basic bechamel it is my understanding that the thickening comes from the the denaturing of the proteins in the flour in the roux. I am a bit comfused because with the 1% milk the finished sauce is a bit looser than I am used to. Since I have been making bechamel sauce since about 1969 I am very familiar with varying the flour content to control just how tight the sauce becomes and have continued using the proportions that I've used for decades. Does the milk fat content play into how the sauce thickens? Or is it something to do with the flour I currently have in the pantry?

Shel_B, those are colorful, fun plates. Good stuff.

If I were able to determine the BTU rating (which is actually BTUs per hour) then I could record each on cycle and off cycle of the oven (set to 425 F, my temperature of intetrst) for an hour, calculate the percentage of on time and multiply that times the BTU rating of the burner then I would be able to relate that to my cost per therm from the gas company and that would give me the cost of using this oven at this temperature. The only other thing I might want to do for real total cost is plug the range into the Kill-A-Watt to account for the cost of electricity.

We keep our bread on top of our toaster oven because we use a regular toaster for toast. We just move the bread off of the top when using the toaster oven. Shelby, the beef/venison blend really caught my eye.

I use the convection to keep the hot air circulating in the toaster oven since the tray with the veggies is just slightly smaller that the oven itself. I mostly use the convection function on my gas range oven also. I am having a bit of trouble deciphering some of the markings on my gas meter. Since I had to do an bit of emergency plumbing today the testing of my range oven was push back a day or two, which includes figuring our the gas meter. It's 30 years old and exposed to the elements and the plastic is a bit fuzzy in front of what I think are the fine measurement dials. The ones I can see start with 1000 cubic feet..

I received a non-answer from Electrolux who apparently owns the Frigidaire name. I suspect they also own others. This means that for my gas range I am going to do something similar to what dcarch suggested. I'm going to see how much gas is consumed for one hour of operation at 425 F including the initial heat-up cycle.

My estimate of the duty cycle after the toaster oven warming up of perhaps 75% as a reasonable guess was not even close. After warmup it only has a 40% duty cycle. With warmup that make the cost for a hour 13.4 cents. I am both truly surprised and happy that the cost is lower than I was figuring. Now I need to wait for the answer from Frigidaire and test for it's duty cycle to get a better handle on it's cost. I am expecting it to be lower also. The main thing I am taking away at this point is I am not spending as much money on using the toaster oven as I thought I was. I still believe my gas stove will have a lower cost than the toaster oven but at around 13 cents a use I'm way less concerned with the difference. I only roasted veggies every week or two.

I have emailed Frigidaire my question. For the record I have over 30 years experience in electrical and electronics engineering which includes 8 years at a high-power power convertor company working on equipment rated anywhere from 135 KW to 2 MegaWatts. My last job was working on a motor controller for a 4 MegaWatt electric motor. Yes, I did say 4,000,000 watts.

Edward J, I looked at the 2 tags on my stove and neither of them had the BTU information. I appreciate the suggestion.

1400 watts on my 120V circuit is 11.67 amps. It is on a 20 amp breaker.

I got the rates right off of my bill. We are a family of 4 adults and 1 toddler. We have 2 refrigerators and a small chest freezer. We also use electric space heaters and only heat the part of the house we are in. We have a smart meter and I have a Kill-A-Watt meter which I used to verify the power draw of my Oster toaster oven. I have been out of work for close to 2 years so there in no BSO in my immediate future.

My rate is $0.21 per KWH. Toaster oven pulls 1400 watts. When I use it for roasting veggies I set it to 450 F and have the Turbo fan on. Even if it's a duty cycle of 75% that's still $0.22/hour.

I'm trying to look at the cost of energy (per hour as a baseline) between the two. I can tell you that the toaster oven costs approximately $0.29 per hour based upon the rates I pay. I made a wild stab based upon a fuzzy memory for gas range ovens: if the duty cycle of the burner over an hour's time for a temperature of 425 F is 66% and the burner is a 20,000 BTU unit then the cost per hour is only $0.12 per hour. If the burner has a lower BTU rating but has a higher duty cycle I can still get a reasonable comparison. I would rather have a real number than my estimation for gas.

I have a Frigidaire range similar to this model:LGGF3043KF. I can't seem to find out what the BTU rating of the oven burner is. I am trying to compare the cost of roasting veggies in my toaster oven that sucks up 1400 watts of power versus using my oven. In the summer it's a no-brainer to use the toaster oven because I take it out onto the patio to avoid adding to the heat load in the house. But in cooler months I'm wondering if gas is quite a bit cheaper or is it close to the same. Any hints on finding the rating of my oven burner? It's not in the users manual or in the specs for the model listed on-line.

I agree. When we travel we carry the bread I like (Miltons) and what my DW likes (San Luis Sour Dough). When we can get it my DW gets Bodine's from San Francisco.

I use Julia Child's recipe using the balloon whip in my KitchenAid Mixer. I have done it by hand when necessary. I use white vinegar, a squirt of prepared mustard for where she calls for dry mustard and corn oil. No other oil will do. Neither the DW or I can stand the taste of Miracle Whip.

Pardon me while I drool. Super find.

A few months ago I found a steam table pan from Bloomfield that has non-standard dimensions. It measures 16.5 x 10 x 2.5 inches. It has turned out to be a wonderful size in my home kitchen. Right now I'm starting 1 1/2 lbs of baked rice in it. I think I paid around $3-4 for it but I just don't remember for sure. Edited to fix typo.

They do indeed. Are you somewhere along the 10 or the 40?

Both Costco stores I use the most keep it in the open refrigerator cases but it does move around.

So happy to be vicariously traveling with you. The enchiladas look tasty.

Tried them. didn't like them. I use metal balloon whisks in my non-stick cookware and have never worried about it. I can not envision the round metal wires digging into the non-stick surface and have never noticed any degradation. Now that I have a proper saucier 95% of my whisk work in that.

Since the manual was on-line and I downloaded it, it made printing the page with the instructions on choosing a wash cycle simple to print and I am running through the laminator as I type. That will help me and my family make good use of the choices available, and by laminating it it can stay in the kitchen and survive. It is indeed a very quiet machine, but has a smaller capacity that my last machine. However, since I can pre-wash glasses and such (yes, I pre-wash everything - I can't bear not to) and run them through the express wash cycle, not such a big deal. I really like the count-down display so I know how much time is left on a given load. So now for my very red-faced confession. It turns out that the contact on the circuit breaker that connects the breaker to the bus bar in the breaker box was (unknown to me) going bad. So what appeared to be the electronics failing (and they really did fail in the machine before this) was being "fixed" by my going out and turning the breaker off and back on. My aging arthritic body was not interested in getting down into the back of the under-sink area where it plugs in to cycle power. My bad. Of course now I'm plotting on how I can use the old machine during one of my peak periods.