How much electricity does an electric blanket use? Type in your wattage, the hours a day your electric blanket runs and your electricity rate, then click Calculate and you get your daily, monthly and yearly cost plus kWh consumption. Those same results also cover electric blanket electricity consumption.
You probably want a quick answer before the first cold snap: how much electricity does an electric blanket use? For most households the honest answer is less than half a kilowatt-hour per night, which is only a few cents of electricity, because the blanket warms you and your mattress rather than the whole room. This guide walks through the wattage, the maths behind your energy bills and the habits that keep the number low.
Every blanket carries a rated power printed on its label or controller, measured in watts. That figure is the most the blanket can draw while it is switched on and heating at full strength. Most under-blankets and throws sit between 45 and 180 watts, a tiny fraction of the 1,500 watts a typical space heater demands. The label tells you the ceiling, but your real energy consumption depends on how long the blanket runs and how often its thermostat lets the element rest.
Electricity is billed in kilowatt-hours, so you convert watts into a daily figure with one line of arithmetic. Multiply the wattage by the hours of use, then divide by 1,000:
$$E_{\text{kWh}} = \frac{P \times t}{1000}$$
Here \(P\) is the rated power in watts and \(t\) is the running time in hours. A 140 watt double blanket left at full strength for 8 hours would draw 1.12 kWh. That is the worst case, though, and it is rarely what happens in a real bed.
Once the bed is warm, the controller cuts power to the element and only restores it when the fabric cools. A low setting therefore cycles on for a smaller share of every hour than a high one. The pattern used for the examples on this page is a 30 minute preheat at full output, followed by a thermostat that keeps the element energised 40% of the remaining time. The result is that a double blanket consumes about 0.49 kWh across 8 hours, well under half of the full-power figure. Switching to a lower setting before you fall asleep trims it further, and a model with dual control lets one person run a cool side while the other stays toasty. Choosing a higher setting raises the heat output, but maintaining the temperature of a bed that is already warm needs very little. Averaged over the night, the double blanket draws about 61 watts, which costs roughly one cent per hour. Cheaper dials and slower warm-ups mean the gap between a low and a high setting is smaller than most people expect, so pick the one that feels right and do not fret about each notch.
Turning kilowatt-hours into money is the final step. Multiply the nightly kWh by the price your supplier charges, found as cents per kilowatt-hour on your statement. The examples below use a rate of 17.35 cents, so you can scale them up or down for your own electricity tariff. For comparison, see circular saw power consumption.
For the double blanket above, 0.49 kWh at 17.35 cents works out to roughly 8.5 cents per day. Over a 30 night month that comes to about 14.7 kWh and $2.55, and across a 120 night winter it reaches 58.8 kWh and $10.20. These are very cheap numbers next to most appliances, which is why a blanket rarely shows up as a line you notice on a bill.
| Product | Rated power | Energy per 8-hour night | Monthly cost (30 nights) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heated cushion | 45 W | 0.16 kWh | $0.82 |
| Heated throw | 85 W | 0.30 kWh | $1.55 |
| Single underblanket | 60 W | 0.21 kWh | $1.09 |
| Double underblanket | 140 W | 0.49 kWh | $2.55 |
| King-size underblanket | 175 W | 0.61 kWh | $3.19 |
| Space heater at half duty | 1,500 W | 6.00 kWh | $31.23 |
Many people ask whether it is wasteful to run a blanket all night. Because the thermostat does most of the work after the first half hour, the extra hours add little. A blanket used only to pre-warm the sheets for 3 hours with a 140 watt element draws around 0.21 kWh, while the full 8 hours draws 0.49 kWh. The difference is about 5 cents a night. Safety matters more than the saving here: only leave a blanket running through the night if its instructions explicitly allow it, and otherwise rely on the automatic shut-off or the timer.
A blanket looks even better beside the alternatives. Warming a person costs far less than warming the air around them, which is the whole reason a heated blanket wins on price in winter.
A 1,500 watt space heater running at half duty for 8 hours draws 6 kWh, roughly twelve times the double blanket. At the same rate that is $1.04 a night, against 8.5 cents. If you only need warmth in one bed, you are paying for a lot of heat you do not feel. The same logic applies to a lounge: a plug-in heated throw keeps you comfortable while the thermostat stays low.
A reverse-cycle air conditioner is more efficient than resistance heating, but it still moves a whole room of air and often a whole floor. Online discussions repeatedly reach the same conclusion: one blanket uses less than one air conditioner, although two or three running at once can start to approach it. If you are comparing the two, remember that the air conditioner also handles cooling in summer, whereas the blanket is a seasonal tool.
Even a thrifty product benefits from a few habits. None of them cost money, and each one trims your household electric bill a little further.
Switch the blanket on 20 to 30 minutes before bed, then turn it down or off once you climb in. A heated cushion or throw on the sofa works the same way: use it while you sit, then unplug. An energy-efficient model with a clear timer is simple to manage, and an energy-saving habit beats any feature on the box.
A smart meter or plug-in power monitor shows your blanket's actual watts and kWh per night, which beats trusting a guess from a forum thread. Some controllers also keep a small standby draw of a watt or so when left plugged in, so switch it off at the wall in the morning. When the controller is switched off properly, the draw drops to zero.
If you already have rooftop solar, a blanket is easy to cover because it asks for so little: the double blanket's 14.7 kWh a month is a small load for any array. Even without panels, a blanket plus a lower heating thermostat can cut a winter bill noticeably, since each degree you drop on the central unit saves more than the blanket spends.
The wattage on the label sets your running cost, so a smaller product that fits the job draws less. Think about where you will use it before you compare prices. Check any other appliance with the electricity cost calculator.
Read the instructions every season and never use the blanket folded, creased or wet. Overheat protection and an automatic shut-off also cap running time and therefore kWh, but they are not a substitute for supervision. Treat safety as the first filter, then comfort and price.
If you only remember a few things, make them these. The blanket in a typical bed draws somewhere between 0.2 and 0.6 kWh a night. Your monthly add-on is a few dollars, which makes it far cheaper than room heating. The maths is always watts times hours, divided by 1,000, times your rate. A hot water bottle needs gas or electricity to heat its water, and a blanket's 0.2 to 0.6 kWh a night is usually still the cheaper way to stay warm. For better sleep and genuine warmth on a cold night, a modern blanket is hard to beat on efficiency. Most electric blankets stay in that range, so treat a heated throw as a plug-in blankie that adds about 0.30 kWh a night.
Your own tariff changes the dollar figure, but not the kWh. The double blanket's 14.7 kWh a month comes to $1.76 at 12 cents and $4.56 at 31 cents, so even in an expensive region the line stays small. Check your latest statement, plug your rate into the formula above and you will know your exact answer in under a minute.