The electric blanket is back (article)

OK I admit it, I was wrong about electric blankets. I misjudged them. I always thought they were a bit frivolous - you know, the whole thing about not using useful stuff like electricity just to keep your toes warm. But then I realised something.

People use electric blankets because they are cold at night. If you are not cold at night, then pretty obviously  this particular posting is not about you. But what about if you are cold at night, and you don't have an electric blanket? What do you do then?

Perhaps you knit yourself a pair of bedsocks and go to bed with a nightcap. But more likely these days, you pop downstairs and turn up (or turn on) the central heating. Or you pop to B&Q and buy a cheap portable heater for about £30. (Of course, if you leave it on overnight it'll only take a few weeks to have spent more running it than it cost you to buy.)

Anyway, if those sound like things you might do, then read on. You're a person who should have an electric blanket, and here's why:

• You can get a decent one now for £35
• Leave it on overnight, it turns itself off in the morning
• In a 12 hour night shift, it eats only 0.25 KWh of energy ...
• ... costing you about 3p in total

Loyal readers will remember, that's about half what it costs me to mow the lawn for 20 minutes. And doing all the calcs, the total carbon impact over 12 hours is about the same as running a 22KW condensing gas boiler for 3 minutes. So the choice is yours: snug and warm all night for 3p, or a 3 minute blast of heat?

On that basis, and in honour of Chinese New Year, I'm making 2011 the Year of the Electric Blanket.