In this go green tip, I will teach you how to save money on your heating bill by using electric blankets! Go Green in Your Home will also explain how you save this money during the winter months!
How Much Heat is Wasted
When you are sleeping your furnace is heating your entire home when your bed only needs to be warm! So all that extra heat is wasted for those 8 hours of sleep time. You are also wasting heat while you are away from your home for 8 hours at work or school and you leave your heat turned on. So in total there is 16 hours of heat being wasted in your home!
How Will I Save Money Using an Electric Blanket
Using an electric blanket at night will allow you to turn your furnace’s thermostat down to 55°F instead of your normal 70°F. This 15°F temperature drop during the 8 hours you are sleeping will save you money. How will you stay warm in 55°F temperatures? Easy, use an electric blanket, a 90watt electric blanket on for 8 hours a day will only cost you $2.20/mo. for each electric blanket in your home, yet will drop your gas bill or electric bill which ever you use for heating your home dramatically.
How do I Save Money on Heating While I’m at Work
Easy, turn your heat down to 55°F for the 8 hours you are at work or school as well. There is no point heating your home when no one is in it to benefit from the warmth. Now if you have pets or someone still in your home, them maybe don’t turn your thermostat down to 55°F, but you can still turn it down at least a few degrees. For every degree you turn down your heat you will save around 2% – 3% on your heating bill.
How Much Money Will I Save on Heating My Home
If you follow these steps and turn down your thermostat to 55°F for the 8 hours your sleep and the 8 hours you are at work or school, you will save around 22.06% on your heating bill!
So if your monthly heating bill is usually $140/mo. your new heating bill following these gas saving tips will be only $109.12/mo. which saves you around $30.89/mo. on your heating bill! Well subtract the $2.20/mo. that you would be paying for each electric blanket running. So you are saving $28.69 every month during the winter on your heating bill!
Programmable Thermostats
For those of you that forget to turn down the heat thermostat to 55°F while you are at work, school, and sleeping, you can buy a programmable thermostat! Basically you can program the thermostat to automatically turn the temperature down to 55°F for the 8 hours you are sleeping, and also for the 8 hours you are at work or school! This way you can have your heat kick back on and heat your home to 70°F before you get home, or before you actually get out of bed!
Electric Blanket Tips and Recommendations
When buying an electric blanket, make sure you get a decent one. You don’t have to buy anything very expensive, but make sure it has a temperature control and also an auto shutoff. This way when you get up in the morning it will automatically shut off incase you forget about it, so you are not wasting electricity to heat your bed when no one is in it. There are also programmable electric blankets, and also auto temperature controlling electric heating blankets. These blankets are a little more exspensive, but they auto adapt to your body heat, you get too warm in the middle of the night it will automatically turn itself down or off. If you get out of bed to go to the bathroom and come back, it will sense that your body temperature has dropped and heat you back up! But, any electric heating blanket or matress heating pad will work great to help you save money on your heating bill.
If you do buy an electric blanket be sure to also buy a decent quilt or comforter to put over top of it so the comforter or quilt will help keep the heat under the covers so the electric heating blanket doesn’t have to run all night to keep you warm.
So if you are saving $28.69/mo. for heating bills, and around my area I am heating my home for about 8 month of the year, so $229.52/year I save! But if your normal heating bill is more than $140/mo. originally, you will save even more money than me!
I hope you use these money saving tips to lower your heating bill. Using an electric blanket to heat your bed is more efficient and also usually a little more comfortable.Your entire bed is nice and warm, even when you first get in it. I hate getting into a cold bed and having to rub my body to create heat by friction to get warm enough to fall asleep. With an electric blanket you will be nice and warm in no time at all. So now you can sleep great knowing you are saving money while you sleep!
October 12th, 2011 at 9:12 AM
Ok green boys and girls, I live in the Northwest so it’s cold an wet. I understand turning the heat down when you away, my question is, what about my dog. 55 seem very low for him, my bill was over 400$ a month last year. I can not afford that this winter, just to keep the dog (Max’s) cozy.
Thank you
October 12th, 2011 at 10:17 PM
Lorenzo,
Good question, I would think 55F is fine. Your home will not be 55F as soon as your furnace is turned down. Your home will gradually get cooler.So your dog won’t be in 55F for too long, before it starts heating back up again. I do know your dog will eat more food to generate more body heat. I myself have even left my furnace down on 55F while I was home, with a sweater and jeans on I was comfy. I can’t do this now as I have an infant here with me, but when I did I was fine. I’d imagine a dog would be fine as well for the short periods they will actually be in 55F.
You can get them a big comfy blanket and leave down for your dog to snuggle up in as well if you like. You can also try this while you are home to see what your dog does, as long as you don’t have small children of course. See if your dog seems to be cold, shivering, or curled up in warm place. Also leave curtains or other window coverings open to let the warm sun in to help keep your home warmer.
March 8th, 2013 at 3:42 PM
how about an electric blanket for the dog to lie on? could be on a timer or something like that. heck, could even leave it on constantly, on the low setting–they are cheap to run.
March 10th, 2013 at 10:49 PM
Fred,
yes, you could use one for pets, there is a heating pad I actually purchased for a insulated cat house I made, they came in different sizes, but they heated up 5 degrees above ambient temperature until the pet lays on it, then it heated up the rest of the way.
October 29th, 2015 at 12:11 AM
What are the chances of an electric blanket catching fire?
November 18th, 2015 at 7:12 AM
Betty,
I haven’t really researched this, but I have never had one catch fire. Newer electric blankets even have temperature sensors to help prevent that as well as getting you too hot.
January 23rd, 2016 at 1:05 PM
Could I hang an electric blanket vertically on my concrete block wall in my basement. Seems to me it would heat the blocks up!
January 27th, 2016 at 11:15 PM
Tony,
I have not done this before, but I assume that as long as you can mount it, without damaging the blanket, I’d imagine it would work. Not sure if I’d keep it permanently though.