How many watts do electric cooktop and oven use? Hot topic

Updated: Jan 09, 2025
Created: Feb 29, 2024
9 min

Julia ZaraevaAuthor

From making your morning porridge to roasting a holiday turkey – your electric oven and cooktop do a great number of things. But what is it costing you? Let’s break down how much electricity your electric oven and cooktop consume.

Key takeaways

Using a stove and oven for one hour per day throughout a year will cost from $30 to $160, depending on the state you live in.
Using a stove and oven for one hour per day throughout a year will cost from $30 to $160, depending on the state you live in.
To run your 3,000-watt oven on solar, you’ll need ten 375-watt solar panels, a 2,000-watt cooktop requires five 500-watt PV modules.

Estimating consumption of an oven and cooktop

3 kW — average consumption of an oven

Typically, electric ovens draw between 2,000 and 5,000 watts of power, with the average being around 3,000 watts. As for the cooktops, most of the cooking rings fall within the range of 1,000 watts for the smaller ones to 3,000 watts for the bigger ones. In total, an average electric cooktop can use something about 5 kilowatts of energy when all cooking rings are on.

Volts, amps, watts – what’s the difference?

The electrical potential difference between two sites is expressed in volts. It is what propels electric charge through a circuit, or the "push."

The electrical current flow rate is measured in amps. It measures the quantity of electrical charge that flows through a certain location in a circuit in a predetermined amount of time.

Power is measured in watts, which indicates how quickly electrical energy is being utilized or consumed. It is computed by multiplying the current (flow rate) by the voltage (electrical potential).

The entire quantity of electrical energy used over a certain time period is measured in kilowatt-hours. It shows how much energy an appliance uses in an hour.

In order for appliances to operate, current must be driven by voltage. The capacity of wires and fuses is determined by amperage. Energy expenses are determined by power consumption, and our electricity bills are affected by kilowatt-hours, which measure the total amount of energy utilized.

Consumption changes throughout cooking

5 kW — average consumption of a cooktop with all rings on

Even if you know the wattage of your oven and each of your cooking rings, exact energy consumption is hard to figure out. There are two reasons for this.

First, the actual power consumption depends on the cooking mode. Drying apples at 140F is one thing, but roasting chicken at 390F is different. In the specs, you’ll find the maximum wattage your cooktop or oven draws. When cooking dinner, people normally use the medium settings and don’t crank the oven to the max.

The spec sheet gives the maximum power consumption. In real life you consume less than that

Secondly, the amount of electricity that the cooktop and oven consume is constantly changing. This happens because when reaching the set temperature, they temporarily shut off to avoid overheating the internal coil and burning your dinner. The highest energy consumption comes during the first few minutes of use until the desired temperature is reached. After that, the cooktop and oven will turn off and on, keeping the temperature at the set point.

Fortunately, knowing even approximate numbers is enough to calculate the rough consumption of your cooktop and oven. Let’s do it.

Calculating oven and cooktop’s annual consumption and cost

Imagine that we have four people in our family and we need to cook every day. We cook four times a week on the cooktop and three times in the oven. Cooking takes us one hour a day. Let’s take the average power consumption of 3kWh for our oven and 2kWh for our cooktop, as most of the dishes are cooked at medium power. So, the energy consumption of our oven will be:

3 kWh x 3 times/week x 52 weeks/year = 468 kWh

And the energy consumption of our cooktop:

2 kWh x 4 times/week x 52 weeks/year = 416 kWh

Сooking alone makes 4 to 5% of your total energy use, according to the U.S. Department of Energy

These are rough estimates, of course. Cooking scrambled eggs takes only 5 minutes, while soup can simmer for over an hour. Besides, you may use more than one cooking ring at once. Or maybe you prefer to dine out a couple of times a week instead of cooking. The exact energy consumption will depend on your preferences and habits.

Now that we know how much electricity does an electric stove use, let’s figure out how much it impacts our bill. If we live in California, where 1 kilowatt-hour costs 19.90¢, one dinner may cost us 60¢, and a year of using our cooktop and oven would amount to $175.

Monthly and yearly costs to run an oven by state

The consumption cost heavily depends on the cost of electricity, and each state has its own cost per kilowatt hour. Let's see how much it would cost you to run a 2,000-watt oven for an hour every day throughout the year.

State	Average Electricity Rate ($/kWh)	Monthly Cost ($)	Annual Cost ($)
California	0.30	18	216
Texas	0.13	7	84
Florida	0.14	8	96
New York	0.21	12	144
Pennsylvania	0.16	9	108

Saving money on cooking

The power consumption of your cooktop and oven makes up quite a tangible portion of your electricity bill. But you don’t necessarily have to replace them with high-tech low-energy ones to upgrade your kitchen. More attention to cooking can make a big difference in the amount of energy you use and reduce your energy bills. Here are five tips to improve your energy consumption and save a few cents.

Switching kitchen to solar power

Using solar panels to power your electric oven and cooktop can be a fantastic step towards a more eco-friendly kitchen. How many solar panels do we need to power a cooktop and oven? Time to do some math.

Our oven consumes about 3kW of power. Let’s add 25% for the losses resulting from converting DC power generated by the panels to AC power consumed by the appliances. So the total wattage required is 3,750 watts or ten 375W solar panels. The average consumption of a cooktop is 2kW plus 25% for energy losses. That’s 2,500 watts or five 500W solar panels.

There is no need to match the solar system to the peak demand of your appliances. You aren’t really switching all of your appliances on at once. Besides, with the grid-tie system, your home can always draw some power from the grid if your solar panels don’t generate enough.

If your system has a battery, the energy generated by your panels and not immediately used for powering your home will be stored there. When you need energy for cooking, your stove and oven can draw the missing watts from it.