Do Thornhill Range Cookers that turn on and off really save money and cook as well as an Aga range cooker? Why don’t all you manufacturers give exact running costs?

YES, YES & YES! Our hot plate heats up in a few minutes, and the oven takes about 20 minutes to get from cold to 180C. In winter you might have it on 100C already to heat the room and so it would only take 10 minutes to get to 200C. The cooking experience is still the all-round infra-red heat of a heavy iron range cooker. Most people with a 24/7 Aga range cooker have a second cooker for summer use. Most people with a Thornhill range cooker do not. Says it all?

So why does everybody seem to fudge the question ‘how much does it cost to run’? Well the answer depends on how you run it, for how long, and how much you want to heat the room it’s in, so it is a difficult question.

A timer can be used with our ovens, and the cooker can be used as an efficient room heater by leaving the cooker thermostat on, say, 100C, and timing it to come on with the central heating. In colder weather the oven temperature is set higher. A radiator in most kitchens is not then required. The cooker will also be ready to use. However, in the summer and on warm days, the cooker can just be turned on when needed, saving a lot of expensive fuel. For a lot of the time, a warm cooker in the kitchen and a wood stove in the sitting room is sufficient to heat the whole house.

But remember, if you heat the kitchen with the cooker and not a radiator it will not cost 1p more per hour. It only costs more if you can’t turn it off when you don’t want it, like an Aga range cooker. Imagine your oil or gas bill if your central heating was on 24/7. Doesn’t bear thinking about!