Budget food/living

What wattage is your slow cooker? I recently got an energy meter so can see useag, often craping myself when I put on certain appliances. Given people have the slow cooker on for extended periods does it end up costing a lot energy wise?

At worst, using a slow cooker might use twice as much energy than your oven to cook the same meal. At best, maybe half the energy. It's a complicated equation that varies depending on the size and wattage of your slow cooker, the quality of your oven (especially the insulation) and the particular meal. The slow cooker is on all the time, while your oven just tops up once it reaches the desired heat. If you have to remove the food at some stages to do something (puree, turn, whatever), the slow cooker tends to lose because it doesn't retain heat so well. On the other hand, you tend to cook all the ingredients together in the slow cooker at once,where you might have to prep some ingredients on the stove, or even have some things done entirely on the stove while the oven is also in use; in the latter cases, the slow cooker wins for sure.

The slow cooker isn't always going to win on energy efficiency, but it often will. If you're a meat eater, there's also the significant price saving of being able to use cheaper (and tastier, when well cooked) cuts.

If you have a good energy meter, you should be able to test this.