Work out exactly what your electric blanket or heated throw costs to run in the UK — per hour, per night, per month and per year — using the current electricity unit rate.
Low wattage · Per hour to per year · UK p/kWh
Electric blankets are low wattage — usually 40–150 W. Higher settings draw more.
Preheating a bed is 1–2 hours; leaving it on overnight is far more.
An electric blanket is one of the cheapest appliances you can run. The formula is simple: divide the wattage by 1,000 to get kilowatts, then multiply by your electricity unit rate in pence. A 100 W electric blanket running at 24.5p/kWh costs 2.45p per hour — less than 5p for a 2-hour preheat.
The calculator above projects this across a day, month and year. Change the wattage or hours to match your blanket and usage pattern, or pick a preset for a quick estimate.
The key advantage of an electric blanket is that it heats you, not the room — so almost no energy is wasted. Compare that with a 2 kW electric room heater (about 49p/hr at 24.5p/kWh) or a gas boiler heating a bedroom (40–80p/hr depending on efficiency and gas price).
If you are in one room in the evening, a heated throw on the sofa is usually cheaper than turning the central heating on. If you are going to bed, preheating the bed for an hour and then switching the blanket off is far cheaper than running the heating overnight.
At 24.5p/kWh, a 100 W electric blanket costs about 2.45p per hour. A 60 W single blanket costs around 1.5p/hr, and a 150 W king-size blanket costs about 3.7p/hr. These are very low figures compared with electric heaters, which can cost 49p or more per hour.
Leaving a 100 W electric blanket on for 8 hours overnight costs about 19.6p at 24.5p/kWh. Over a week that adds up to roughly £1.37, and over a typical winter season (say, 20 weeks) around £27. Switching it off after preheating the bed reduces this considerably — 1 hour per night for 20 weeks costs just £3.43.
Yes — electric blankets are among the cheapest electrical appliances to run. Because they are in direct contact with your body, they heat you rather than the room, so very little energy is wasted. A 100 W blanket used for 2 hours a day costs around £1.49 a month, compared with £20 or more a month for an electric panel heater running for the same time.
In most cases, yes — significantly so. A gas boiler heating a bedroom typically costs 40–80p per hour to run (depending on boiler efficiency and gas price). An electric blanket warming the bed directly costs 1.5p–3.7p per hour. If you are sleeping, a preheated bed with the heating off is usually far cheaper than running the central heating overnight.
Most modern electric blankets with an auto-shutoff timer are safe to fall asleep with on a low setting, but you should always check the manufacturer's guidance. From a cost perspective, leaving a 100 W blanket on for 8 hours costs about 19.6p. Using a timer to switch it off after you fall asleep saves energy and is the recommended approach.
A typical heated throw draws around 100–150 W. At 24.5p/kWh, a 120 W heated throw costs about 2.9p per hour to run — roughly 58p for a 5-hour evening watching TV. Over a week that is about £4.08 if used every evening, or around £16 per month.
Assuming a 5-month winter season (October–February) with daily use: a 100 W blanket used 2 hours a day costs about £7.50 for the whole winter at 24.5p/kWh. Even if left on 6 hours a night every night, a full winter season would cost around £22.50 — still far less than supplementary room heating.
