They exist now because of an effective marketing campaign making them a definite lifestyle statement:dubious:
My old Mum had one installed when she moved to the country from London - this was in the 70’s. Not very practical in modern conditions but - with a decent sized kitchen - it was only too hot in the room for short spells in summer (this in southern England). In winter - and spring and autumn (and a large part of an English summer) - it provided heat instead of the central heating.
Cooking was interesting! Mum’s was coal fired - none of your fancy modern gas or oil - and had to be filled up each evening before bed. There was no way of turning it up if it cooled down so planning was needed. There was definitely no chance of it heating oil hot enough to deep fry and make decent chips (British chips, not American chips!) so Mum had an electric cooker as back-up. On oven size, maybe not big by American standards but very deep - almost the whole depth of the stove. Plenty of room for a large roast and all the trimmings.
As stated earlier, when you have a large family to cook and bake for, a stove that is continuously hot is a wonderful advance over the coal-fired stoves that preceded it. Its “efficiency” depends on it being continuously in use for daily cooking needs.
If you cook in the modern way – once or twice a day – it’s pretty much the opposite of efficient.
:smack: My cousins actually have Stanley ovens, I don’t know how much they differ from Agas but they can definitely be turned off easily and when they’re being turned back on just take a while to get going. I have one friend with an Aga that I must ask about this.
I think the point for me is more the loveliness of radiant heat. It’s almost as good as the sun beating down on your face. It’s like that great feeling standing in front of a roaring fire and you sudden;y find that the backs of your trousers are almost burning your legs. . . the Aga doesn’t put off that much heat, but that’s the kind of heat it puts off. . .
Am I making sense at all?
It’s also just really nice having the ability to boil water in moments or put the baking straight into the oven. If you’ve ever had a slow electric cooker, well, they’ll make you crazy.