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How much does it cost to run an electric blanket?

Work out what any appliance costs to run per use, per month and per year on your own electricity rate — including what it draws on standby. Rates for all 50 states.

Showing US rates
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Using the US average of 18.44¢/kWh — the U.S. Energy Information Administration, May 2026.

The cheapest way there is to be warm in bed, and the comparison that makes the point is not another blanket but heating the whole bedroom.

Rates vary widely across US — picking yours makes the answer far closer.
Wattage is on the rating plate or in the manual. Washing machines and dishwashers usually quote kWh per cycle instead.
Usage
W
min
kWh
Your tariff
¢/kWh
On your bill or in your online account. If you do not know it, the average for your area is filled in already.
W
Leave at 0 if you unplug it. Most things with a clock, light or remote draw 0.5–3 W.
Cost per use $0.12
Cost per year $42.96
Cost per month $3.58
Energy per use 0.64 kWh
Energy per year 233 kWh
Of which standby $0.00

Common cases

What drives the cost

An electric blanket is the clearest example on this site of a principle worth internalising: heating a person is enormously cheaper than heating the space around them. A blanket draws 60 to 100 W and warms the one cubic metre that actually matters. Heating the bedroom to the same felt comfort means warming the air, the walls, the furniture and the ceiling, and replacing the heat all of that loses to the outside all night.

Compare this page against the room heating calculator with a bedroom in it and the gap is usually a factor of ten or more. That is not a marginal saving, it is a different order of magnitude, and it is why heated throws, heated chair pads and hot water bottles all keep reappearing in cost-of-living advice. The sensible pattern is to heat the bedroom just enough to keep surfaces above the dew point — so it does not go damp — and heat the bed properly.

How this is worked out

Electricity is billed per kilowatt hour. An appliance's kilowatt hours are its power in kilowatts multiplied by the hours it runs — so a 2,000 W appliance running for 30 minutes uses 1 kWh. Multiply that by your rate and you have the cost. The fixed monthly customer charge your utility adds is not included, because you pay it whether or not you switch anything on.

What this assumes

  • The appliance draws its rated power for the whole time it is on. Anything thermostatically controlled — ovens, heaters, refrigerators, air conditioners — cycles on and off, so the real figure is lower.
  • Your rate is flat all day. On a time-of-use plan the same appliance costs materially different amounts depending on when you run it, and peak rates can be several times the off-peak rate.
  • State averages come from the EIA and blend every utility in that state. Your own utility may be meaningfully above or below it, so use your bill where you can.
  • A year is 52 weeks of identical use, which overstates seasonal appliances and understates ones you use in bursts.
  • The rate filled in for you is an average that spreads fixed charges across a year's usage, so it sits above what one extra unit really costs. Entering the unit rate from your own bill gives a closer answer.

Questions

Is an electric blanket cheaper than heating the bedroom?

By a very wide margin, usually ten to twenty times. A blanket at 80 W for eight hours is under a kilowatt hour; holding a bedroom at a comfortable temperature overnight is several. Heating the person rather than the room is the cheapest physics available to a household.

Is it expensive to leave one on all night?

No, and it is the normal way to use an underblanket. At 60 to 100 W on its lower settings, and with a thermostat that cycles rather than running continuously, a full night is a matter of pennies. Overblankets and heated throws draw more, but are usually used for an evening rather than a night.

Does this include the monthly service charge?

No, deliberately. The fixed customer charge is billed for being connected at all, so it does not change when you run an appliance more or less. Including it would make every appliance look more expensive than it is.

Why is the default rate different from what I pay?

The figure filled in is the EIA state average across all utilities in your state. Rates inside a single state can vary widely between a municipal utility and an investor-owned one, so your bill is always the better number.

Where do I find the wattage?

On the nameplate — usually a label on the back, base or inside the door — or in the manual. It is written as W or kW. If it only lists amps, multiply amps by 120 for a standard outlet, or 240 for a large appliance circuit.

Sources

Rates from U.S. EIA for May 2026. Last reviewed September 3, 2026.