How many watts does a toaster oven use?

Saving energy is important to all of us. Whether it’s because you want to save our planet or you just want to save a few dollars, we all want to use energy as little as possible. This means finding the appliances that are the best at keeping energy demands to a minimum. If you’re using a toaster oven or wanting to buy one, you need to understand how much energy it uses.

Toaster ovens are almost always better than conventional ovens because they are smaller, work off electricity, and don’t generally get used to cooking food that needs a long time. This is why toaster ovens are considered by a lot of people to be the appliance of the future.

Before you can buy one, you need to know how energy efficient your new appliance will be. As a keen toaster oven user, I’ve put together a guide on how much energy a toaster oven uses and how you can make sure that you use as little energy as possible. This is the key to keeping the planet happy and your wallet full.

Table of contents

• What is a watt?
• Why are toaster ovens good for energy efficiency?
• How many watts does a toaster oven use?
• How much electricity does a toaster oven use standby?
• Conclusion

Before we get started, we need to know what we’re talking about. This means defining what a watt is and why you should know about it. Watts are measurements of energy. In this case, we are using watts to measure electricity. A watt (W) is the amount of energy it takes for a joule (J) to be used or produced. A joule is a small measurement of the force that we use in science. You don’t need to know the exact science behind what a joule is, but just know that it is a small amount of energy. When we use energy, we are measuring watts to say how much energy we need to transfer it. The more watts we use, the more power we need. That is why we need to look for devices that have small wattage demands. The lower the watts, the more energy (and money!) we can save.

Toaster ovens are great because they don’t require a lot of power. I own a toaster oven and it only uses 1500W per hour of cooking. This is much better than most other devices that can perform the same tasks. For example, a gas oven will be using as much as 2200W per hour. Over the course of a year, this can mean hundreds of dollars in difference.

Toaster ovens are great because they are smaller and use electricity. Because it is smaller, it doesn’t need to heat up the cooking cavity for as long as a gas oven would. If you have a convection toaster oven (like me), that heat is also circulated and recycled throughout the cavity.

Because toaster ovens have smaller demands and (sometimes) extra technology to retain heat better, this means that we can use less energy. This in turn means that we need to use fewer watts to roast a chicken, reheat some lasagna, or to bake some cookies. Compared to a gas oven, this will save the planet a lot of pollution and you a lot of dollars.

As I’ve mentioned, toaster ovens use between 1200 and 1700W per hour of cooking. This is higher than a regular toaster or a microwave, but it is lower than other devices which are capable of roasting chickens or baking cookies. Regular ovens almost always used over 2000W per hour. If you are using a particular environmentally friendly appliance, that is a saving of around 800W per hour of cooking.

Over the course of its life, a toaster oven won’t need to use as many cooking hours as a gas oven does. Cooking time is generally shorter because you are cooking or reheating smaller dishes. This cuts down on the average amount that is spent again.

According to my calculator, the average amount of energy that a toaster oven will use is between 5 and 8 cents per 10 minute period. This means that roasting a chicken costs between $1.20 and $1.80 (based on 2 and half hour cooking time). If you cook a chicken once a week for a whole year, this will only cost you $74.88. Fantastically cheap in the long run.

Putting a device on standby does not turn it off. It still uses electricity and, for some appliances, that can be as much as 75% at a time. This means that you are using 900-1275W worth of electricity per hour. Again, this adds up over the long-term.

If you have a toaster oven (or any other electricity powered appliance) that doesn’t need to be plugged in and turned on, unplug it! This will save you a lot of money in the long run and give you better rates on the amount of electricity you are using. Especially when you are not using it.

Yes, especially if you need to save money on the appliances you use. They demand less energy and can be easily unplugged in order to save on unneeded expenditure.

More importantly for me, they can be used to cook the same dishes that a gas oven can cook without using and wasting as much heat. Stopping your devices from spending all their energy on creating more heat to keep your appliance at a certain temperature saves on spending unnecessary watts and unnecessary dollars.

Looking back on this article, I have to say that traditional ovens should be left off unless you need to cook something big. Maybe you like to cook turkeys even when it isn’t Thanksgiving or you have a particular love for cooking sides of beef, but I don’t often cook massive dishes. That’s why my oven is often turned off at the plug and left alone for long periods throughout the year.

A toaster oven uses between 1200 and 1700W per hour of cooking. That’s very respectable, especially compared to more traditional ovens. Considering you can still get the same excellent quality from a toaster oven, I don’t see any reason why you wouldn’t get one.

I’ve really enjoyed using mine and I’ve enjoyed looking at the savings I’ve been making to an even greater extent. If you get a convection toaster oven, you can get even better savings by cutting down on unnecessary spending on reheating your device.

For me, these are great reasons for the unconverted to start looking at toaster ovens. I love mine and I am very happy with the low wattage. You can make sure that you don’t spend too much on electricity by a wise investment in these fantastic devices.