Burning Out While Cooking? This Small Appliance Keeps Your Kitchen Cool

There’s a trendy kitchen appliance that’s fast approaching roast as my favorite summer cooking tool. Yes, the air fryer is at it again. This time, the speedy machine steps in to keep temperatures down and save money on energy during these warmer months.

Outdoor cooking on the roast remains one of my favorite summer pastimes, but when the mercury climbs above 90 degrees, I need a way to make dinner without having to lean over a steel fire pit. The oven is only there to heat the entire house, and requires a lot more energy to keep it warm.

You don’t need to run a convection oven with an extension cord because you Reddit user admitted to doing thisThe air fryer can perform many of the tasks that you would need the oven to perform, while with heat and remain energy efficient.

To prove why the air fryer belongs in the summer cooking hall of fame, I did some testing to see how much the oven heats up the kitchen compared to an air fryer. Spoiler alert: the air fryer beat the oven and barely raised the temperature in my house. Air fryers also cook quickly and require almost no preheating time, so you avoid turning that important room into a sauna.

A heatwave requires creative thinking to keep the house cool and an air fryer is my ticket to get through those sultry summer months without starving. The best part? A good air fryer is available for as little as $50. Since Air fryers use less energy They are cheaper than an oven or grill and will save you money on your monthly energy bills.

How much my oven heated my kitchen after 30 minutes

To find real differences, I roasted chicken thighs in my KitchenAid wall oven (less than 10 years old) and a 4-quart Dreo air fryer, following two popular recipes from a well-known cooking site. I tested the temperatures before, during, and after to see how much of a difference each appliance makes.

The kitchen in my Brooklyn apartment is on the small side, but it is not enclosed and is open to the rest of the apartment. I kept the windows closed for the test, although it is worth noting that recent studies Show cooking on natural gas in a closed kitchen can pose a health risk.

The standard oven recipe called for the chicken to be roasted in the oven at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Because of the smaller chamber, the air fryer recipe only took 20 minutes to cook at the same temperature. The air fryer only takes about a minute to get up to temperature, while the oven takes more like five.

I placed a standard ambient thermometer in the middle of the kitchen, about 1.5 meters from the stove, at counter height. I took a reading before turning on the oven or air fryer. I took another reading halfway through the cooking time and the last one at the end of the cooking time. Between the two sessions I waited for the kitchen to return to a resting temperature before starting the next one.

The large oven made my kitchen 12 degrees hotter than the air fryer

As I suspected, my oven heated up the kitchen much more than the air fryer. Halfway through the recipes (15 minutes), the oven raised the temperature of my kitchen 15 degrees from 71 F to a very hot 88 F.

After 10 minutes of air frying at 375 F, the temperature in my kitchen had only risen 5 degrees F, from 72 F to a comfortable 77 F. You can feel the heat from the air fryer if you’re close enough, but it’s not enough to significantly change the temperature in the kitchen.

Read more: How to Keep Your Kitchen Cool (and Lower Your Energy Bill) During a Heatwave

Not only did the air fryer cause less temperature spikes, but I only had to run it for about 20 minutes with a one minute preheat time. The oven took 30 minutes to cook the chicken and 6 minutes to preheat.

By using the air fryer you save on your energy bill

During a heat wave your air conditioner is already working hard. Heating up the kitchen with your oven will only make it work harder, requiring more energy to get the room back up to the desired temperature. If the air conditioning has to make up the difference for a single 20 or 30 minute cooking session with an oven, that might not be a total budget buster. Spread that out over time or for longer cooking sessions and using the oven during warmer months can have real financial implications. For more information, read my breakdown of exactly How much more does an oven cost to run than an air fryer.

What can you make in an air fryer?

With an air fryer you can prepare almost all dishes that you can prepare with an oven. However, air fryers are usually smaller than built-in ovens, so you cannot prepare as much at once.

I’ve been messing around with the air fryer a lot this year. I’ve discovered the joy of cooking whole chickens in the air fryer, salmon fillets and even bacon cheeseburgers. The air fryer exceeds its reputation for baking crispy wings and fries. You can make dinner party recipes in the air fryer without literally breaking a sweat.

Here are seven foods which I now only make in the air fryer, not just because they keep my kitchen cooler, but because the results are as good or better than other methods. Here’s our complete guide to air fryerseveryone’s favorite new kitchen appliance.

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