What Is Cheaper To Do.. Use An Electric Blanket Or Turn Up The Thermostat And Use The Oil To Heat Up The House?
November 29, 2009 by admin
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We are trying to save money this winter and I was wondering if it would be cheaper if we turn down the thermostat at night and used electric heating blankets in bed to stay warm or should we just turn up the thermostat and warm up the entire house and not use electric blankets? (We have oil for heat) Which way would save us the most money?
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The average electric blanket is 200 watts, and makes 682 BTUs per hour. A US gallon of oil makes 130,000 BTUs, but with efficiency losses the net is about 104,000 BTUs. So, a gallon of oil is worth 152 hours of electric blanket use.
The typical residential furnace/boiler is rated at 150,000 BTUs, and so burns 1.15 gallons of oil per hour. Heating oil here on the east coast is going at about $2.08/gallon on ‘contract’. Electricity is $0.16/kwh.
The blanket uses $0.032/per hour. Oil is costing you $2.392 per hour. If you can save one gallon of oil per day by using the electric blanket for 8 hours, you will save approximately $2.14 per day.
Hope this helps.
to save $$ on heat
SET it and Forget it,
the more you turn it up and down the more you will burn,
when you turn the heat down ALL of the house cools off, then when you turn it up you have to Reheat the whole house,
so set it at ? and use the electric blanket also,
The electric blanket is cheaper since it’s only heating a small area. But, you’ll still have to deal with a cold house when you get up !
it would be cheaper to use the electric blanket, because it doesn’t heat the entire house.
In general, the smaller space you heat, and the shorter time you heat it, the less it will cost you. It costs much less to warm a house from 15 C to 20 C than it does to keep the same house at 20 C for 8 hours. The reason is that the rate of heat loss increases proportionately to the differential between the inside and outside temperatures.
Clearly, a queen-sized bed is smaller than a room or a house. You will definitely save money by using the electric blanket and turning down the thermostat at night. As a better alternative to the electric blanket however, check out a “down” (not feather) comforter. While the initial cost is higher, a good down comforter lasts a lifetime because you just change the cover every 10 years or so.
I have slept comfortably out of doors at -20 C. snug in a down-filled sleeping bag. I turn my house theremostat down to 10C at night and am toasty all night under my winter-weight down comforter.
Just a tip: put at least one and preferably two old wool blankets between your mattress and mattress cover. This keeps the warmth in your bed where it belongs.
By the way, if you want to save even more, buy yourself a caulking gun and caulk every crack around all your window and door casings. Make sure your doors are weathertight and seal properly when closed. You would be amazed at how much heat is lost through the tiniest cracks.