Electric underblankets vs using radiators in bedrooms

Mstty

Dolor said:

Many of us of a certain age will well remember waking up in the morning to inside window panes covered in ice. I do not remember any reported deaths amongst my schoolmates. Even on the coldest of days in the Winter of 1962/3, we were all still expected to walk the two miles to and from school. We were a hardy bunch in those days: central heating ‘bah humbug’. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-21189863

Time may tell us if that generation lives longer or not due to those types of living conditions and a whole host of other caveats to do with medical advances.......we won't ever know lol

Chrysalis

With a proper quilt I dont see how an electric under blanket is needed, even when it was really cold last December and without heating, the one place I was never cold was under my quilt, sure if hands sticking out, but those would be same with electric blanket also.

Stubod

..we have not put the heating on in our bedroom for years as we prefer a colder room for sleeping. Also there does not seem much point in heating a room (we have economy 7), all day when we are only in it at night and find a decent quilt keeps us warm enough anyway. 

What  we do have is an electric overblanket that we put on 10 mins before we get into bed to take the chill off.....works for us, and is certainly a more cost effective solution?

Swipe

wild666 said:

Never used an electric blanket, my daughter wanted me to buy one last September but I said NO!  I have a 4.5 TOG quilt on the bed all year round and in winter it's cold when I get into bed but soon warms up, it takes about 15 minutes to warm up, then I watch on demand programs for a few hours on the PC before turning it off and dropping off to sleep.

I used to think the same way even in my previous bungalow with an unheated bedroom until I got an electric blanket as a present one Christmas. Now I have bedroom heating, I use one of those wheat sack things that you heat in the the microwave for 60 seconds for my cold feet. I'm still thankful for my electric blanket though and it will certainly be used if we have a cold spell this winter. 

Swipe

Chrysalis said:

With a proper quilt I dont see how an electric under blanket is needed, even when it was really cold last December and without heating, the one place I was never cold was under my quilt, sure if hands sticking out, but those would be same with electric blanket also.

When your bedroom stays below 13C for days on end the mattress can feel very cold when you first get in. An electric blanket on full whack for 10 mins while you are getting ready makes it feel very welcoming.

MarzipanCrumble

I have 2 mattress covers - one a quite deep feather/down and on top of that sheep wool which is quite thin.  Fitted sheet goes on top.  Bed warms up in about 5 mins and 2 feather/down duvets (4.5 and 12 tog from memory) on top.  If very cold a single feather/down duvet on top of that.  Feather duvets are light and get shaken up each morning as do the matress covers.

silverwhistle

I think this is one of those questions where the answers should indicate where in the UK you live. So here in warm Hampshire near the coast I basically relied on the wood burner in my lounge for heat and rarely had the GCH on so that my annual usage, mainly for hot water was under 1700 kWh and around 1200 the year before. I never had heating on upstairs except for a hot air blower a few times under my desk when I wanted to use up a bit of surplus solar.

If I'm in bed I'm warm, hottie if necessary, when out of it moving and active so it's really only sat reading in the lounge or eating in the dining room that much heat is needed, and for that the wood burner is more than sufficient as it keeps the whole fabric of the house warmer. No doubt as I get older needs will go up and by that time I'd hope to have an A2A heat pump.

On the North East coast or some cold Scottish glen you'll have different needs!

littlemoney

No heating on in the bedroom but I do use an electric blanket to warm the bed and keep me warm when I have a lie in on a winter's morning. I also have a heated pad in my bed which I use as a foot warmer. When I wake up with cold feet I just switch on the pad,  warm my feet and can go back to sleep. Last winter when it was minus 12, I woke up to ice on the inside my bedroom window, a heavy curtain was between me and the window.

t0rt0ise

[Deleted User] said:

Many of us of a certain age will well remember waking up in the morning to inside window panes covered in ice. I do not remember any reported deaths amongst my schoolmates. Even on the coldest of days in the Winter of 1962/3, we were all still expected to walk the two miles to and from school. We were a hardy bunch in those days: central heating ‘bah humbug’. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-21189863

People usually talk of this sort of experience as if it was all fine, even sometimes as if it was all so much fun. It really wasn't, it was horrible. I don't believe we were hardy, we just had no alternative.

Spoonie_Turtle

t0rt0ise said:

Dolor said:

Many of us of a certain age will well remember waking up in the morning to inside window panes covered in ice. I do not remember any reported deaths amongst my schoolmates. Even on the coldest of days in the Winter of 1962/3, we were all still expected to walk the two miles to and from school. We were a hardy bunch in those days: central heating ‘bah humbug’. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-21189863

People usually talk of this sort of experience as if it was all fine, even sometimes as if it was all so much fun. It really wasn't, it was horrible. I don't believe we were hardy, we just had no alternative.

Indeed.   

Dolor said:

Many of us of a certain age will well remember waking up in the morning to inside window panes covered in ice. I do not remember any reported deaths amongst my schoolmates. Even on the coldest of days in the Winter of 1962/3, we were all still expected to walk the two miles to and from school. We were a hardy bunch in those days: central heating ‘bah humbug’. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-21189863

In my childhood we did have ice on the inside of the window, open fires downstairs (nothing upstairs), paraffin heater for the outside toilet, and no central heating until 2019 - certainly didn't make me hardy, just miserable.  (We still use the outside toilet, by the way, just avoid in winter if possible as the paraffin heater is no more.)

Dad is 'of a certain age' and from a farming family, worked outdoors, so he was hardy - but does appreciate waking to a tolerable temperature of a winter's morning, not needing to bundle up or freeze to use the bathroom and light the fires.  He finds having it below 18℃ in the daytime uncomfortably chilly now, even with layers.  

[As a country girl, I am mildly tempted to say 'only two miles?'    But I didn't have to walk to be fair - and thank goodness, as the footpaths across the fields didn't actually link up to get to any of my schools and the fast traffic on the windy, narrow country lanes made them unsafe to walk.]