Advanced options
What The Electric Blanket Cost Calculator Works Out
- Per night: wattage x hours on, divided by 1,000 to get kilowatt-hours, multiplied by the electricity unit rate. A 100W double underblanket for two hours uses 0.2 kWh, about 5p at the current price cap.
- Whole winter: the nightly cost multiplied by the nights you use it. 120 nights is a typical November-to-March season; 150 to 180 covers a long winter.
- Blanket wattage: single underblankets are usually 50W to 70W, doubles and kings 100W to 120W, and heated throws 120W to 180W. Pick the closest or enter your own in advanced options.
- Electricity unit rate (advanced): defaults to the current Ofgem price cap but is editable for fixed deals, Economy 7 night rates (often 12p to 16p) or time-of-use tariffs.
- Thermostat duty cycle (advanced): the share of the time the element is actually drawing power. A blanket on a low setting or with a thermostat typically runs 30% to 60% of the time, so the label wattage overstates real use.
- Number of blankets (advanced): multiplies the cost for a household with several beds or a throw on the sofa as well.
- Fan heater comparison (advanced): what a 2kW fan heater would cost for the same hours. It is roughly twenty times the blanket's draw, which is the whole heat-the-person argument.
- Equivalent gas heating (advanced): the same kilowatt-hours bought as gas. Gas is about a third of the price of electricity per unit, but a boiler warming a whole bedroom uses many times more energy than a blanket warming a bed.
- Payback on a new blanket (advanced): how many nights a GBP 40 blanket takes to pay for itself against the fan heater alternative, usually under a fortnight. Replace any blanket over ten years old or showing scorch marks, creased wires or a frayed flex, and never use one with a hot water bottle.