Something I found from our new fan-assisted electric oven - it seems to be about 20 degrees over cal. We have to set all temperatures 20 degrees lower to get stuff cooked right. I think this is actually a general issue with fan-assisted ovens, since they're more efficient at cooking than normal ones.

Oven temperatures are rarely if ever accurate though, since they're usually set by a dodgy mechanical thermostat. This is particularly true with older ovens, where the thermostat is crap and out of calibration, and the oven insulation is all knackered so the heat doesn't stay in. One of these days when electronic thermostats (as used in better home central heating systems) become standard on ovens, we'll all be able to cook at a standard temperature for the life of the oven.

I love our electric cooker - halogen hob, so "instant heat". Highly recommended, and it's just a single glass top so it's dead easy to clean. And all the controls go up to "incinerate", so there's no problems getting stuff as hot as you like. :-) As an example, on the gas cooker in our last house, I did fried chicken on setting 4 (out of 5) - on our new cooker, I still use setting 4, but now the dial goes up to 7!

Someone earlier said that using gas meant you could still cook when the electricity was off. In fact, most modern gas cookers I've seen have electronic controls, so you can't cook anyway if the electricity is off (as my mum found out 2 years ago). :-(

Graham.