What does a heated blanket cost to run?

People assume anything with a heating element is expensive to run. For a heated blanket, the numbers are small enough to be surprising, so here they are in full.

The formula

Electricity is billed in kilowatt-hours. The cost of running anything is:

watts × hours ÷ 1,000 × price per kWh

The U.S. Energy Information Administration puts the average residential price at 17.3 cents per kWh for 2025, and projects about 18.2 cents for 2026. We'll use 18 cents. Your own rate is on your bill, and the wattage of any heated blanket is printed on its controller or label.

A heated blanket

Most full-size heated blankets draw somewhere between 100 and 150 watts on their highest setting, and less on the lower ones, which is where most people keep them. Taking the top of that range:

• One hour on high: 150 W × 1 h ÷ 1,000 × $0.18 = about 2.7 cents
• A three-hour evening: about 8 cents
• Every evening for a month: about $2.40

On a middle setting, roughly halve those figures.

A space heater

A typical portable space heater draws 1,500 watts, ten times as much:

• One hour: 1,500 W × 1 h ÷ 1,000 × $0.18 = 27 cents
• A three-hour evening: 81 cents
• Every evening for a month: about $24

The difference isn't efficiency; both turn electricity into heat at the same rate. The difference is what you're heating. A space heater warms the air in a room, and most of that heat goes to the ceiling, the walls and the corners nobody is sitting in. A blanket warms the person.

The thermostat

This is where the real saving usually hides. The U.S. Department of Energy says you can save as much as 10% a year on heating by turning your thermostat back 7 to 10 degrees for eight hours a day. You don't need to go that far: if a heated blanket lets you set the house a few degrees cooler in the evening without noticing, that saving is far bigger than the blanket's own running cost, and it applies to the whole home, not just the sofa.

What this means in practice

• Running a heated blanket for an entire winter costs about what one takeout coffee does.
• Replacing a space heater in the evening with a blanket saves most of what the heater was costing.
• Turning the thermostat down a few degrees while you're under it is where the money is.

Our blanket has six heat settings and six timers, so it only draws power for as long as you tell it to. You can see it here.

Sources: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook (residential electricity price, 2025 actual and 2026 projection); U.S. Department of Energy, thermostat guidance. Figures are rounded; your rate and your blanket's wattage will vary.