Aga Rangemaster is planning to launch a marketing campaign showing how its £6,000-plus cookers can be used to save energy in the home as it attempts to convince cautious shoppers to splash out on one of its stoves.

William McGrath, chief executive of Aga, told the Financial Times that he believed his "Aganomics" campaign, to be launched this autumn, would help him hit a target of shifting 20,000 Aga cookers during the current financial year to end-December 2008.

However, he acknowledged that he would have to work hard to convince consumers that spending up to £20 a week running a new three-door electric Aga - the older models will cost about £25 a week - is not as expensive as it seems.

"An Aga is a workhorse that can do many things for you," said Mr McGrath. "People always say Agas cost more, but think of the incremental costs of having radiators and other products in your home such as a kettle, toaster, tumble dryer, cooker hood. Those are a lot of energy consumer products that you don't need if you have an Aga."

The company will write to 30,000 oil Aga owners in the coming months to tell them about the new, more energy-efficient programmable Agas on the market in an effort to drive more sales.

Mr McGrath said that using a new electric model could reduce energy bills by up to £9 a week compared with the old oil-burning models. However, Mr McGrath admitted that the slowdown in the UK housing market was of far greater concern to him than rising energy bills.

"You would expect us to be a housing transaction-related stock," said Mr McGrath. "If people are stalling on moving home, we have to make the case that they should be buying an Aga or Rangemaster in their kitchen. There is no easy run from consumer markets."

The shares rose 2p to close at 186p on Friday, giving a market capitalisation of £127m.