Comparisons / Head to head
Electric blanket vs a space heater
Fifteen cents against two dollars twenty for the same eight hours. This is the comparison with real money in it, and there are still cases where the heater wins.
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A 100 W blanket over eight hours is 0.8 kWh, about 15 cents. A 1,500 W space heater over the same eight hours is 12 kWh, about $2.20. That is roughly fifteen times the cost, every night. Over a 120-night winter: $17.61 against $264.10.
The arithmetic, both sides
Same formula, same rate, two wattages. Nothing here is estimated except the heater's rating, which is the standard nameplate figure for a portable US space heater.
| Run time | kWh | Cost | Working |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 hour | 0.10 | 2 cents | 100 x 1 / 1000 x 0.1834 |
| 4 hours (an evening) | 0.40 | 7 cents | 100 x 4 / 1000 x 0.1834 |
| 8 hours (a night) | 0.80 | 15 cents | 100 x 8 / 1000 x 0.1834 |
| 30 nights at 8 hours | 24.00 | $4.40 | 100 x 240 / 1000 x 0.1834 |
| A 120-night winter at 8 hours | 96.00 | $17.61 | 100 x 960 / 1000 x 0.1834 |
Rate: US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.3 (June 2026): 18.34 cents per kWh, average US residential. Retrieved 2026-08-31.
Rated wattage is the ceiling, not the average. A thermostatic blanket cycles its element on and off once the bed is warm, so an all-night bill usually lands below the rated-watt figure. We publish the rated number because it is the only one the maker stands behind, and we do not estimate a duty cycle for a blanket we have not measured.
| Run time | kWh | Cost | Working |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 hour | 1.50 | $0.28 | 1500 x 1 / 1000 x 0.1834 |
| 4 hours (an evening) | 6.00 | $1.10 | 1500 x 4 / 1000 x 0.1834 |
| 8 hours (a night) | 12.00 | $2.20 | 1500 x 8 / 1000 x 0.1834 |
| 30 nights at 8 hours | 360.00 | $66.02 | 1500 x 240 / 1000 x 0.1834 |
| 120-night winter at 8 hours | 1440.00 | $264.10 | 1500 x 960 / 1000 x 0.1834 |
At $0.1834/kWh (EIA, US residential average, June 2026). 1,500 W is the standard nameplate rating for a portable US space heater. Both figures assume continuous draw; a thermostatic heater cycles, as does a blanket, so both are ceilings.
The comparison in one line
| 100 W blanket | 1,500 W space heater | Ratio | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rated draw | 100 W | 1,500 W | 15x |
| Eight hours | 0.8 kWh | 12 kWh | 15x |
| Cost per night | 15 cents | $2.20 | 15x |
| Cost per month | $4.40 | $66.02 | 15x |
| 120-night winter | $17.61 | $264.10 | 15x |
The ratio is constant because both scale linearly with time at the same rate.
The ratio holds at every duration, because both are linear in time. That makes this one of the few comparisons in this category where you do not need to think about it very hard: whatever period you care about, the heater costs fifteen times more.
Why the gap is so large
Because they are solving different-sized problems, and only one of them is the problem you actually have at night.
A space heater raises the temperature of a room: several thousand cubic feet of air, continuously losing heat through walls, windows and gaps, in a house where you are asleep and not benefiting from most of it. A blanket warms the few cubic feet under it, against a body already producing roughly 100 watts of heat on its own.
The blanket is not more efficient in any thermodynamic sense. It is doing a job about fifteen times smaller.
Where the space heater still wins
Three cases, and it would be dishonest to leave them out of an article this one-sided.
- 1You need the room warm, not just yourself. Getting dressed, working at a desk, a baby's room, anywhere you move around. A blanket only helps the person under it.
- 2Pipes and fabric. If the room is cold enough to risk freezing pipes or damp, that is a building problem and a blanket does nothing for it.
- 3More than one person in the room, moving around. A heater covers everybody; a blanket covers whoever is under it.
The honest framing is that these are not competitors. A blanket is for a stationary person; a heater is for a space. They overlap only in the specific case of one person, in bed, at night, which happens to be a very common case.
And what about the central heating
The question people actually want answered, and the one we will not put a number on.
What it costs to heat your house overnight depends on the house, its insulation, its heating system, its fuel and the outside temperature. There is no national figure and any site that gives you one has invented it. What we can say is the direction: heating one bed is a smaller problem than heating a building, so if a blanket lets you turn the thermostat down overnight it will save more than it costs.
Whether it lets you do that is a fact about your household, not about the blanket. The blanket-side arithmetic is on cost per month, and you can put it against your own bill.
The picks, with the numbers
Ranked on what the maker publishes, not on a score we invented. Tap a row for the full write-up, or go straight to the listing. Cost is 8 hours at the rated wattage and $0.1834/kWh.
| # | Product | Best for | Watts | Per night | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Top pickWestinghouse Heated Blanket, Queen100 W stated on the listing, 10 heat levels and a 12-hour timer. The cheapest bed blanket to run of anything here that publishes a number at all. | The lowest published draw | 100 W | 15 cents | Check price |
| 2 | Bedsure Heated Throw with Preheat100 W published, a preheat cycle that steps itself down, and a 10-hour timer. The throw we would buy on the numbers. | The best-documented throw | 100 W | 15 cents | Check price |
Sources: wattage from each maker's own published listing, cited on the card below. Cost is our arithmetic at the EIA rate, shown in full on cost to run.
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The lowest published draw
Westinghouse Heated Blanket, Queen
100 W stated on the listing, 10 heat levels and a 12-hour timer. The cheapest bed blanket to run of anything here that publishes a number at all.
Where the wattage comes fromWestinghouse states it directly in the first listing bullet: "a 100W, 60Hz heating blanket". This is a single-controller queen, so 100 W is the whole blanket rather than one side of it.
100 W x 8 h = 0.80 kWh, x $0.1834/kWh = $0.15 per night
- Size
- Queen, 84" x 90"
- Heat settings
- 10 levels
- Auto shut-off
- 1-12 hours, selectable
- Controllers
- 1
- Certification
- ETL and FCC certified
- Warranty
- Not stated on the listing
- Rated watts
- 100 W
- Voltage
- 120 V, 60 Hz
- Fabric
- Double-layer 200 GSM flannel
- Memory
- Yes, holds your last heat level
- Model
- KTHB-QAVV-Q
What it does well
- 100 W published, the lowest figure any queen here stands behind
- 10 heat levels and a timer selectable to any hour up to 12
- Memory function, so you are not resetting it every night
- Machine washable on cold, gentle
Where it falls short
- One controller only, so the whole bed runs at one temperature
- No warranty term on the listing
- Westinghouse's other queen listings do not publish a wattage, so the figure is model-specific
Who this is forA solo sleeper, or a couple who genuinely agree on temperature and want the lowest running cost on the page.
Skip it ifSkip it if you share a bed with someone who runs hot. There is one controller and no way to split the blanket.
The best-documented throw
Bedsure Heated Throw with Preheat
100 W published, a preheat cycle that steps itself down, and a 10-hour timer. The throw we would buy on the numbers.
Where the wattage comes fromBedsure states "a power rating of 100W" at 120V AC, 60Hz. Same figure as the brand's queen-size single controller, on a blanket a quarter the area, which is why a throw heats faster.
100 W x 8 h = 0.80 kWh, x $0.1834/kWh = $0.15 per night
- Size
- 50" x 60"
- Heat settings
- 6 levels
- Auto shut-off
- Up to 10 hours (1-2-4-6-8-10h)
- Controllers
- 1
- Certification
- ETL and FCC certified
- Warranty
- Warranty card included in packaging; term not stated online
- Rated watts
- 100 W
- Voltage
- 120 V AC, 60 Hz
- Fabric
- 220 GSM flannel / 200 GSM sherpa
- Preheat
- Yes, 2h at level 6 then 6h at level 4
- Model
- BS-100T
What it does well
- Published wattage, so an hour on the sofa has a computable price
- Preheat steps down automatically rather than holding peak
- Warm without power thanks to the sherpa backing
- ETL and FCC certified
Where it falls short
- 6 heat levels
- Warranty term is only in the box, not on the listing
- 50" x 60" is a one-person throw
Who this is forAnyone who wants a sofa throw and wants to know what an evening under it costs.
Skip it ifSkip it if you want to cover two people. At 50 by 60 inches it is a personal throw, not a shared one.
Questions people actually ask
- Is an electric blanket cheaper than a space heater?
- Dramatically. A 100 W blanket for eight hours is 0.8 kWh, about 15 cents. A 1,500 W space heater for the same eight hours is 12 kWh, about $2.20. Roughly fifteen times the cost, at every duration.
- How much does it cost to run a space heater all night?
- At 1,500 W for eight hours, 12 kWh, about $2.20 at $0.1834/kWh. Across a 120-night winter that is about $264, against about $18 for a 100 W blanket.
- Can an electric blanket replace a space heater?
- For one person in bed, yes, and it is the cheaper answer by a wide margin. For warming a room you move around in, no. They solve different problems and overlap only in the stationary-person case.
- Is it cheaper to use an electric blanket than central heating?
- Almost certainly, because heating one bed is a smaller problem than heating a building. We will not quote a figure for central heating: it depends on your house, its insulation and its heating system, and any national number for it is invented.
Sources
Every specification on this page traces to a published manufacturer listing or a government data source. Where a maker publishes no wattage, we say so rather than estimating one.
Read next
- Cost to runSourced watts, a cited US rate, and the arithmetic shown for every figure.
- What it costs per month, and per winter$4.40 a month at 100 W, and why payback is the wrong question.
- Do electric blankets use a lot of electricity?About ten LED bulbs' worth, and one fifteenth of a space heater. With the table.
- The best electric blanketsSeven bed-size blankets ranked on published wattage, controllers and warranty.