In-depth exploration of cooking entirely with electricity

In summer 2022, MECS (Modern Energy Cooking Services) established a challenge fund to investigate the implications of cooking entirely with electricity in select countries in Asia and Africa. This produced 21 reports from 18 partners in 12 countries outlining the energy and time costs and savings; barriers and difficulties of cooking with ecook (electric cooking) appliances; and participant preferences and experiences.

Our partners followed a modified ‘Cooking Diaries 3.0’ protocol to produce meal-resolution data to explore these areas of enquiry. This report offers a summary of the qualitative data generated by this challenge fund in relation to research questions 5, 6, 7 and 8:

5. Which dishes do people prefer to cook using different electric devices?

6. What is the user experience of cooking entirely with electricity?

7. What barriers prevent people from cooking entirely with electricity?

8. What difficulties do people encounter when cooking entirely with electricity and how do they overcome these?

In the ‘Cooking Diaries 3.0’ protocol, participants first completed a baseline survey, then partners monitored the households as they continued to cook as normal. After a consultation with participants, partners selected ecook technology to introduce to the households. These appliances frequently involved EPCs (electric pressure cookers) and induction stoves but also included infrared and hotplate stoves, rice cookers, kettles and more.

In the next phase called ‘transition’, households were asked to cook exclusively with the ecook appliances where possible. After this, they completed the endline survey, which covered topics such as difficulties, barriers and experience with cooking entirely with ecook devices. During the transition phase, rice was most often cooked using rice cookers and EPCs, yet EPCs were also used for lentils, beans and pulses in addition to vegetables, stews and soups and meat.

Meat and vegetable dishes had the most variation in which device was chosen to cook them with. Meat was found to be cooked with induction, infrared or hotplate stoves (NAMHUS, CEEEZ), EPC (EED, CEEEZ), airfryers (CEEEZ). Vegetables, on the other hand, were cooked in EPCs (CEEEZ), induction and infrared stoves (NAMHUS, WACN, KAPEG), hotplates (Jahangirnagar) as well as in a rice cooker (CIRCODU). Like in the baseline, microwaves were often used for reheating events (Kijani, EED) and electric kettles used for water heating events (CEEEZ, WACN). Whereas in the baseline phase participants had used pre-existing ecook devices for task-specific actions, during the transition phase, participants demonstrated themselves becoming more confident and comfortable with these devices, as appliances were not always used in task-specific ways, with vegetables being steamed in a rice cooker (CIRCODU) and tea being made in the microwave (CEEEZ).