How Much Does It Cost to Run an Electric Blanket?
Short answer: about $0.069 a day and $2.08 a month, or $0.017 for each hour it runs at full power, at the 2025 US average electricity rate. That is for a 100 W electric blanket running 8 hours a day with a 50% duty cycle. Change the state and hours below for your own number.
Updated Nov 8, 2026
Quick answer
Quick answer, US average (17.3 c/kWh)
About $2.08 a month
The same use costs $1.42 a month in North Dakota and $4.87 in Hawaii.
- Per hour
- $0.009
- with 50% cycling; $0.017 at full 100 W
- Per day
- $0.069
- 8 h, 0.40 kWh
- Per month
- $2.08
- 30 days
- Per year
- $25.26
- 365 days at the same use
Your state, your hours
Per hour
$0.009
Per day
$0.069
Per month
$2.08
Per year
$25.26
Electric Blanket at 100 W, 8 h a day, 30 days a month, 50% duty cycle: 12.0 kWh a month. Using the 2025 US average of 17.3 cents/kWh.
Want to change the watts or duty cycle too? Open the full calculator.
What decides the cost of running an electric blanket
An electric blanket is a grid of thin insulated heating wires sewn into fabric, controlled by a thermostat or a simple duty cycle controller. A throw is typically rated 50 to 100 W, a twin around 100 W, and a queen or king with dual controls 100 to 110 W per side, so 200 to 220 W with both sides on high. Heated mattress pads are in the same range. The default here is 100 W for 8 hours at a 50 percent duty cycle, 0.4 kWh a night, about 7 cents at the national average rate.
The duty cycle matters because the setting on the controller is not a power level. On most blankets, a middle setting turns the wires on and off in a pattern so the average draw is a fraction of the rating, and many models also cycle off once they sense the bed is warm. On the highest setting with no cycling, a 100 W blanket uses 0.8 kWh a night, about 14 cents. Preheating the bed for half an hour on high and then dropping to a low setting is the cheapest way to use one.
What makes an electric blanket worth knowing about is what it replaces. A 1,500 W space heater cycling on its thermostat for 8 hours uses about 7.2 kWh, around $1.25 a night, so the blanket at the default costs about one eighteenth as much. The bigger saving is the whole house. The DOE estimates that setting the thermostat back 7 to 10 degrees for 8 hours a day can save up to 10 percent a year on heating, and a warm bed is what makes a cool bedroom comfortable.
Over a winter of about 150 nights the default comes to about 60 kWh, roughly $10. Even a dual control queen with both sides on high all night, 220 W, uses only about 1.76 kWh a night, roughly 30 cents.
Electric blankets are also one of the easiest loads to carry through a winter outage. At 100 W, they run for hours on a small power station.
How to cut it
- Preheat the bed on high, then drop to low or a middle setting for the night.
- Use the auto shut-off timer, typically 8 to 10 hours, so it does not run all day.
- Turn the whole-house thermostat down at night. That is where the real saving is.
- On a dual control blanket, only heat the occupied side.
Electric Blanket cost by state
Monthly cost for 100 W, 8 h a day, 50% duty cycle, 30 days, sorted cheapest to most expensive. Pick your state above to highlight it.
| Rank | State | Cents/kWh | Per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Dakota | 11.81 | $1.42 |
| 2 | Idaho | 11.82 | $1.42 |
| 3 | Nebraska | 12.34 | $1.48 |
| 4 | Louisiana | 12.57 | $1.51 |
| 5 | Arkansas | 12.84 | $1.54 |
| 6 | Montana | 12.98 | $1.56 |
| 7 | Utah | 13.07 | $1.57 |
| 8 | Washington | 13.11 | $1.57 |
| 9 | Oklahoma | 13.12 | $1.57 |
| 10 | Nevada | 13.15 | $1.58 |
| 11 | Tennessee | 13.18 | $1.58 |
| 12 | Kentucky | 13.24 | $1.59 |
| 13 | South Dakota | 13.38 | $1.61 |
| 14 | Wyoming | 13.38 | $1.61 |
| 15 | Missouri | 13.49 | $1.62 |
| 16 | Iowa | 13.72 | $1.65 |
| 17 | North Carolina | 14.02 | $1.68 |
| 18 | Mississippi | 14.03 | $1.68 |
| 19 | Kansas | 14.56 | $1.75 |
| 20 | Georgia | 14.73 | $1.77 |
| 21 | South Carolina | 14.96 | $1.80 |
| 22 | New Mexico | 15.08 | $1.81 |
| 23 | Florida | 15.24 | $1.83 |
| 24 | Virginia | 15.28 | $1.83 |
| 25 | Arizona | 15.32 | $1.84 |
| 26 | Oregon | 15.37 | $1.84 |
| 27 | West Virginia | 15.41 | $1.85 |
| 28 | Texas | 15.47 | $1.86 |
| 29 | Minnesota | 15.82 | $1.90 |
| 30 | Colorado | 15.85 | $1.90 |
| 31 | Alabama | 16.10 | $1.93 |
| 32 | Indiana | 16.23 | $1.95 |
| 33 | Ohio | 16.96 | $2.04 |
| 34 | Delaware | 17.13 | $2.06 |
| 35 | Illinois | 17.69 | $2.12 |
| 36 | Wisconsin | 18.16 | $2.18 |
| 37 | Pennsylvania | 19.30 | $2.32 |
| 38 | Maryland | 19.48 | $2.34 |
| 39 | Michigan | 20.01 | $2.40 |
| 40 | District of Columbia | 21.94 | $2.63 |
| 41 | New Jersey | 22.63 | $2.72 |
| 42 | Vermont | 22.92 | $2.75 |
| 43 | New Hampshire | 24.56 | $2.95 |
| 44 | Alaska | 26.09 | $3.13 |
| 45 | New York | 26.39 | $3.17 |
| 46 | Maine | 27.78 | $3.33 |
| 47 | Connecticut | 29.38 | $3.53 |
| 48 | Rhode Island | 29.46 | $3.54 |
| 49 | Massachusetts | 30.48 | $3.66 |
| 50 | California | 32.54 | $3.90 |
| 51 | Hawaii | 40.59 | $4.87 |
Rates: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861, annual average residential price, 2025 (eia.gov). Full list on the electricity rates by state page.
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Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to run an electric blanket all night?+
About 7 cents for 8 hours at the default. A 100 W blanket cycling about half the time uses 0.1 x 8 x 0.5 = 0.4 kWh, and 0.4 x $0.173 is $0.069. On high with no cycling it is 0.8 kWh, about 14 cents.
How much does an electric blanket cost per hour?+
About 1.7 cents an hour on high, since 0.1 kWh x $0.173 = $0.017. At a middle setting that cycles about half the time, it is under 1 cent an hour.
How much does an electric blanket cost per month?+
About $2.08 a month of nights: 0.4 kWh x 30 = 12 kWh, and 12 x $0.173 is $2.08. On high all night every night it is about $4.15.
How many watts does an electric blanket use?+
About 50 to 100 W for a throw or twin, and 100 to 110 W per side for a dual control queen or king, so up to about 220 W with both sides on high. Most of the night it averages far less as the controller cycles.
Does an electric blanket use a lot of electricity?+
No. At the default it uses 0.4 kWh a night, about 60 kWh over a 150 night winter, roughly $10. A 1,500 W space heater uses that much in about 8 nights.
Is an electric blanket cheaper than a space heater?+
Yes, by about 18 times on this site's defaults. A space heater cycling for 8 hours uses about 7.2 kWh, about $1.25 a night, against 0.4 kWh, about 7 cents, for the blanket.
Is an electric blanket cheaper than turning up the heat?+
Usually, yes. The blanket costs a few cents a night, and the DOE estimates that setting the thermostat back 7 to 10 degrees for 8 hours a day can save up to 10 percent a year on heating. The saving comes from turning the house down while you sleep.
How much does it cost to run a heated mattress pad?+
About the same as a blanket, 7 to 14 cents a night for a 100 W pad. A dual control queen pad at about 100 W per side costs up to about 28 cents a night with both sides on high for 8 hours.
How long will a power station run an electric blanket?+
About 2 nights on a 1 kWh power station at the default of 0.4 kWh a night, or about 1 night with the blanket on high the whole time (0.8 kWh plus inverter losses).
How can I lower the cost of running an electric blanket?+
Preheat on high, then use a low setting, set the auto-off timer, and only heat the occupied side. Dropping from high to a setting that cycles half the time saves 0.4 kWh a night, about 7 cents.
Marcus Reed
Founder and Editor, CrunchYourDollars
Marcus Reed builds the sizing tools on CrunchYourDollars. He is a software engineer with a long-running PC hardware and power supply habit, which is where the watts, watt-hours and surge math on this site comes from. Product specs are pulled from manufacturer data sheets, electricity rates from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and water chemistry rules from the Water Quality Association. He is not a licensed electrician or plumber: the tools show the math and the matching models so you can make the call, and anything involving your electrical panel should be checked by a licensed pro.
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