Aga cooker running costs 2025

Too long won't read? My summary...

1. Multi element is cheapest at just over £1,000
2. Oil & gas are just over £2,000
3. Oil is an environmental catastrophe
4. Gas is, slightly, better
5. Multi element reduces CO2 emissions by 95% vs oil

My annual look ahead at the cost (in money and to the environment) of running Aga cookers is here, thrilling! 

Energy prices have fallen across the board in the last year.

• Electricity was 28.62p p/kWh this time last year. It is 24.86p p/kWh now. That is a decrease of just over 13%.
• Gas was 7.42p p/kWh, it is now 6.34p p/kWh. A fall of just over 14%. 
• Oil was 73.5ppl, it is now 60ppl. A fall of just over 18%.

How does this translate to the running costs of the cooker in your kitchen? For fuel used in oil and gas cookers we use the factory figures plus a small supplement for age related insulation breakdown. The single element electric (13amp) figures are a blended estimate based on hundreds of conversations with owners of these cookers (they tend to be very keen to convert, you can see why!). The kWh figures I use for multi element electric systems are realistic figures based on my own use, I use it for heat a lot. In the winter I use my cooker in a very traditional way, its on all day every day cooking and drying washing but turned off overnight if the weather is mild. It will still dry a load of washing overnight and keeps the kitchen warm as it cools. In the summer I am more flexible as the kitchen gets hotter and the BBQ comes out of the garage! 

  

"How do you calculate our servicing & repair costs?"

Oil cookers tend to cost more to keep going, especially as they are getting older these days. We have 25 years of data showing 3 visits a year on average for servicing and repairs. In 2025 prices (£147 + VAT per visit) this is around £529.20 annually but we've gone with 2 visits for our chart above at £352.80 in case its an outlier. Gas cookers are more reliable so we've allowed for one service a year (the minimum by law) plus a new thermocouple annually

"But don't multi element cookers cost less to run as they are off all the time?"

Ha, no! This is a question we get a lot. Part of the reason multi element cookers cost less to run is because they are controllable. More heat (leave it on!) in the winter, more control in the summer. When you want heat, its there, when you don't its not.

The main reason electric costs least though is efficiency, 100% of the kWh that goes into an electric Aga cooker turns into heat that stays in your home. With oil or gas most of the kWh you consume go straight up that 4inch diameter flue, only the pigeons benefit! That is why electric costs less overall despite electricity being the most expensive per kWh!

"Which option is the most sustainable?"

That would be electricity and the gap keeps getting wider, electric cookers get greener every year without you doing anything!

• In 2023 a kWh of electricity created 146 grams of carbon dioxide. In 2024 that figure was 124 grams. That is a fall of 15% in a single year! A similar fall is predicted this year meaning a multi element electric cooker will emit just 457kg of carbon dioxide. 

Oil and gas of course do not change, the sustainability gap keeps getting bigger!

• A 4 oven oil Aga cooker emits 9235kg of CO2, nearly 10 tonnes, annually. Going electric reduces this by 95%. Extraordinary!

"Can Aga cookers get any more efficent?"

AGA Rangemaster themselves have a great line.

"We've always used the best fuel availabile at the time. This was solid fuel (coke), then oil, gas and now electric."

There is no better fuel source for Aga cookers even remotely on the horizon, EVERTHING will go electric in the last three quarters of the 21st century, including all Aga cookers. What can change, and is already, is the control that is available.

Multi element electric gave owners of Aga cookers far more control, the newest 'Advanced' system from Electrickit takes this to the next level., The touch screen, and software control, means cookers can be programmed, remote controlled and made more efficient by matching themselves to your schedule. Only need one oven on weeknights? No problem, we'll create a program for that. Would you like two roasting ovens ready by 11am every Sunday morning? No problem again! 

We hope one day even cleverer programs will be possible! A few ideas?

• Turn on both ovens to 220 degrees for a Sunday roast at 10am IF the temperature outside is below 15 degrees.
• Reduce the oven temperatures overnight to 100 from 220 degrees UNLESS the temperature in the kitchen falls below 15 degrees.
• Turn off the cooker IF the price of electricity goes over 20p p/kWH

Anything is possible with software and I think will allow a further reduction in running costs without sacrificing the things we love best about owning, and cooking, in an Aga cooker!

The environmental cost of electric cookers will continue to trend to zero as we make progress on our 'net zero' mission in the UK. The future is, or should be, one of abundant cheap and green electricity powering almost everything in the UK. 

French nuclear power, Moroccan sunshine, Norwegian hydro and our home grown wind power all combined with a few super efficient gas plants (and maybe batteries in the long term). We'll run our cars on this, heat our homes and Aga cookers, grow herbs in January and live bright warm lives without harming the environment. Wonderful!