I haven't had an electric blanket in yrs. I'm wondering if using one to warm things up a bit before bed when I turn my thermostat down would be a happy medium or if it would be a case where any energy saved by turning down the heat would be lost by a few minutes with the electric blanket.

sara, we use an electric blanket, or DH does, we have a single one on his side of the bed. He loves it and when I go to bed first during winter I always go to his side of the bed to warm up, so I love it too. Naturally we don't have the cold you do, we don't even need heaters in the bedroom at night during winter, but electric blankets are very economical to run and very effective.

We have a couple that we use on the kids' beds....(well they aren't kids anymore..:lol: ) but I think it saves money to use them and turn the heat down.

We used to have them - sunbeam - But I bought a few new ones two years ago from WalMart and had put them on the kids beds to warm up before bed time and Ryan's caught fire - it was brand new and it evidently malfunctioned but one week later another lady's house burnt down from one so I have decided the new ones aren't getting enough attention to safety so we won't use one anymore - I returned my new ones and through the elements out from the old ones - the dogs have the old ones now.
Too iffee for me but boy they felt good.

We don't use them either. When I was a teenager, all of us kids had one on our beds. My sis's caught on fire and burned the house down. My parents never bought us another one and I refuse to bring one in my house!!!!

I love how they feel, but I'm too afraid to own one for the reasons above :eek:

ours is a sunbeam. I've never heard of any fires related to the use of electric blankets here.

I LOVE my electric blanket~ and had never heard of any fires here, either. We keep our bedroom cool with a fan running all year as it's easier to sleep/breath for both of us with allergies/asthma, etc. So, in the winter, having a toasty warm bed and a cool room is the perfect sleeping environment for me~ I've never looked at the cost of the heat vs. blanket issue, though, so I can't help you there.

I just thought of this. It's very important to store electric blankets correctly. I have DH's stored away now and I rolled it on a cardboard cylinder so that the wires aren't pinched or buckled.

some of the newer ones have smaller element wires running through them now and they have an automatic shut off after 10 hours. i can't remember if the ones at the store i work at are sunbeam or not though, but those are the 2 new safety features the video loops are tooting about.

Weve used them for years and love them. We live in a farm house with no heat on the second floor.

We have a dual controlled Sunbeam and LOVE it. Dh has his side on 1 or 2 and my side is at 6 or 7 :D . I usually turn it on just before I get ready for bed and often turn it down to a lower number before I go to sleep. We, too, keep it very cool in the house at night and I'm not as achy if I use the electric blanket. I haven't done a cost comparison, but I would think using the blankets like we do is cheaper than heating the whole house all night.

according to http://www.ravallielectric.com/d5.htm it costs $2 a month to run an electric blanket.