Electric underblankets vs using radiators in bedrooms

cool_k

I was on the UK personal finance community on Reddit last week where I saw someone recommend using electric underblankets on the lowest setting during the night rather than heating bedrooms.

First of all, does anyone else do this?

Are there any drawbacks of doing this.

I'd still have the radiators switched on downstairs and the heating is set to come on twice a day in the winter. 

km1500

Back in the day all you had were hot water bottles and it was much colder then !

cool_k

km1500 said:

Back in the day all you had were hot water bottles and it was much colder then !

We use hot water bottles during the winter at the moment (and freeze them during the summer)

FreeBear

cool_k said: I was on the UK personal finance community on Reddit last week where I saw someone recommend using electric underblankets on the lowest setting during the night rather than heating bedrooms.

First of all, does anyone else do this?

During the summer, no.

In the winter months, I'll have the heating set to ~16°C overnight and use an electric blanket set on low if it is really cold. Also have a furry hot water bottle to keep my back warm. A little unreliable though, and it has claws, so not the best thing under the duvet.

Jyana

I was back to no heating this past winter and found the electric blanket too warm to have on after settling down for the night. Some mornings it was nice to pop it on for a little before getting up, but all night would have left me sweltering I think. 

Qyburn

cool_k said:
I saw someone recommend using electric underblankets on the lowest setting during the night rather than heating bedrooms.

First of all, does anyone else do this?

Yes but only to pre-warm before going to bed. I've never heated a bedroom overnight. In Winter the heating goes off about an hour before going bed, back on around 1/2 hour before getting up. 

maisie_cat

We have neither, heating on in the morning and sometimes evening, but we do have 2 duvets in the coldest part of the winter.

JGB1955

I would roast if either
1) the heating was on all night (it's set at 15C overnight and only kicks in 4 or 5 times a year)
or
2) I had to sleep in a pre-heated/continuously heated bed.  We have our bedroom window open (on the latch) 24/7/366.

So...... in answer to your questions...

1) No, we don't do this
2) You're heating things that don't need heating... and at a cost (IMO)!

SAC2334

Underblankets are only for a prewarm. I ve been using Dreamland overblankets for years and they are really cheap to run and IMO far better and cheaper  than radiators to run .Underblankets seems dangerous left on in the night  if say a hot water bottle leaks or you have some other little unplanned  "accident " in the night .

Spoonie_Turtle

It probably depends on you, your bed, your bedroom and your home.

My own bed is pretty good at keeping the heat in once warmed up (I'll use a hot water bottle, but an electric blanket would have a similar - probably better - effect).  I can't have the bedroom drop too cold though otherwise I feel extra ill, even if the rest of my body has stayed reasonably warm overnight.  

But our heating is turned off overnight and it doesn't seem to drop *too* much, although if we had a really prolonged cold snap we'd have to work out how to get it to kick in at a minimum temperature overnight without messing up the daytime settings.  Our heat pump doesn't seem to have that facility so it would have to be manual, which is why it's just off overnight instead of kicking in unnecessarily (set to 18℃ in the day which we really don't need overnight).

Alnat1

Heating set at 17.5C in the day until 10pm then off until 6.30. Last winter we left it on overnight during that really cold snap in December but only at 14C. Any higher and it would have been too warm for me to sleep.