Households urged to stay warm at night for 2p an hour without running heating | Personal Finance | Finance

The cold nights are closing in and with heating bills going up by another 10 percent this winter, many of us are looking for any way we can to stay warm without breaking the bank, as far as possible.

And with state pensioners losing their £300 Winter Fuel Payment and a £300 Cost of Living payment to those on benefits also being withdrawn this winter, a lot of people will be trying to do whatever they can to reduce their bills as far as is possible this year.

Martin Lewis often espouses the benefits of ‘heat the human, not the home’, to those worried about their electricity or gas bills, and one of the easiest and cosiest ways to do that is with an electric blanket.

Sam Morris, heating expert at Which? says: “One of the cheapest ways we’ve found to keep yourself cosy is to wrap up in an electric blanket. 

“Our tests have found they typically cost between 2p to 6p an hour to run on their highest setting – much cheaper than the average fan heater. 

“This means that if you used an electric blanket for three hours a night, every night, for half the year, the cheapest-to-run options would only cost about £11 in total, versus £33 for the most expensive.

“You can reduce the cost further by setting the blanket to a lower setting, or turning it off sooner. The blanket will still remain warm for a couple of hours after turning the power off, so you feel the benefit without the cost ticking up.”