Everybody’s got their own way of saving electricity. It’s a big thing now in South Africa. People know they’re being fleeced by Eskom and the municipalities, but what can they actually do about it?
One place where saving electricity really adds up is the kitchen. Cooking happens every day, sometimes twice a day, and if you shave a bit off each meal, by the end of the month you’ve saved more than you think. This isn’t about living on crackers or buying a R100,000 solar system. It’s about cooking smarter.
The air fryer has become the poster child for “energy-saving cooking”, but it’s worth looking at the actual numbers.
A typical electric oven pulls between 3,000W and 5,000W. An air fryer usually sits around 1,400W to 1,700W. That’s already a big difference, but the real saving is time.
• The oven: 10–15 minutes to preheat, then 35–40 minutes to cook.
• The air fryer: little to no preheating, 15–20 minutes total cooking time.
In real terms, a simple meal cooked in the oven can cost around R6, while the same meal in an air fryer can be closer to R1.50. That’s roughly a 75% saving.
Air fryers are great for small, fast meals—chicken breasts, boerewors, roast vegetables for two people. If you’re cooking for a big family and running it three times in a row, you lose the advantage fast. An air fryer is not a substitute for a Sunday roast.
One of the biggest electricity drains in cooking is time. The longer a plate or element stays hot, the more money you burn.
This is where stir-fries shine. Proper stir-frying is done on high heat for 4–6 minutes. You heat the pan once, cook everything quickly, and you’re done before the stove plate even reaches full temperature.
A useful trick is using fresh or “wet” noodles instead of dried ones. Dried pasta needs a big pot of water boiling for 10 minutes. Wet noodles just need warming through. Sear the meat, add vegetables, toss in the noodles, splash of sauce, lid on for a minute, and dinner is done.
If you’re not stir-frying, steaming is one of the most energy-efficient ways to cook.
A good example is steamed fish parcels. Wrap white fish (hake, kingklip, basa) with thinly sliced vegetables, lemon, and a bit of olive oil in foil or baking paper. Place it in a pan with a lid or in the air fryer.
Because steam transfers heat efficiently, the fish cooks in 6–8 minutes. There’s no oven preheat, no frying, and no litres of water to boil. As a bonus, steaming retains up to 90% of nutrients, so you’re saving money and eating better.
Cooking with the lid off is one of the most common and expensive mistakes.
When steam escapes, heat escapes. Research shows that cooking without a lid can use up to three times more energy because you’re constantly reheating what’s being lost through evaporation.
Keeping the lid on traps heat, which means:
• You can turn the plate down to level 1 or 2
• You can switch it off 5 minutes early and let residual heat finish the job
That’s free energy you’re otherwise throwing into the air.
Microwaving frozen meat feels convenient, but it’s an unnecessary electricity hit.
The safest and cheapest method is overnight fridge thawing. It uses no extra electricity and actually helps your fridge stay cold. The frozen meat acts like an ice pack, reducing how often the fridge motor switches on.
Defrosting meat in the sink at room temperature is risky—bacteria thrive when the outside warms while the inside is still frozen. The fridge method wins on safety and savings.
It would be remiss not to mention gas, because many people are thinking about it. If you can afford to install a gas hob or gas stove, it can dramatically reduce how much electricity you use for cooking. Gas gives instant heat, works during load shedding, and for everyday meals it often costs less per plate than electricity.
But here’s the trap: once people have gas, they sometimes start using electricity where they don’t need to. Don’t microwave food just to “save time” when the gas plate is right there. Don’t default to the air fryer for meals that would be quicker and cheaper on gas.
Defrosting still matters. Even if you cook on gas, throwing frozen meat into the microwave is paying Eskom for something time does better for free. Fridge-thaw overnight, cook fast on gas, lid on, and you’ve cut electricity use almost completely out of the process.
Gas works best when it replaces electricity — not when it quietly adds to it.
Cooking in South Africa right now requires strategy. Faster cooking, covered pots, less preheating, and fewer glowing red plates.
Every lid you close, every minute you shave off a plate, and every smart meal choice adds up. These days, every rand counts.
