How Much Does It Cost to Run an Electric Blanket?

Most electric blankets and heated mattress pads draw between 40 W and 200 W on their highest setting, and large king-size or dual-control models can reach about 400 W with both sides on high. We use 150 W as a typical figure for a double or queen-size blanket.

A blanket rarely draws its full rating all night. Once the bed is warm, the controller switches the heating wires on and off, or turns the power down, to hold the setting, so over a night it uses roughly half its rated power on average. At 150 W that's about 75 Wh an hour, or 0.6 kWh for 8 hours: about $0.11 a night in the US, £0.16 in the UK and €0.22 in Germany.

Over a month of nightly use that adds up to about 18 kWh. If you only use the blanket to pre-warm the bed for 30–60 minutes and switch it off when you get in, the cost falls to a small fraction of that.

Underblankets, also called heated mattress pads or covers, go under your bottom sheet and are the most common type in the UK, Europe and Australia. Overblankets go on top like an ordinary blanket and are common in North America. Heated throws are smaller and made for the sofa.

Power depends mostly on size and setting rather than type. A single-bed underblanket may use under 60 W, while a king-size overblanket with two controls can use several times that. The rating is printed on the label or the controller; use that figure in the calculator for your exact cost.

Almost always. A 1,500 W space heater running for 8 hours can use 12 kWh. Even if its thermostat cuts that in half, it still uses about ten times as much as a typical electric blanket's 0.6 kWh. A blanket warms you and the bed directly instead of heating all the air in the room.

That's why many people turn the heating down at night and use an electric blanket instead. The blanket only warms the bed, though. In very cold weather a bedroom still needs some heat to limit damp and condensation, and to stay safe for babies, older people and anyone who is unwell.

Electric blankets are a winter appliance in both hemispheres: roughly November to March in Europe, North America and East Asia, and May to September in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and South America.

Figures are full power on the highest setting. Once the bed is warm, and on lower settings, average use is often about half. Your blanket's exact rating is on its label; use that number in the calculator.

• Pre-warm the bed for 30–60 minutes, then switch off or drop to the lowest setting when you get in.
• Use the timer or auto-off function if your blanket has one.
• Turn the room heating down at night and let the blanket keep you warm.
• A good duvet over an underblanket keeps the heat in the bed, so a lower setting is often enough.
• If only one person likes a warm bed, a dual-control blanket lets the other side stay off.

• Space heater
• Heat pump
• Kotatsu
• Oil-filled radiator
• Bill analyzer