Home > Shop > Bedroom > Heating > Morphy Richards Eco Heated Underblanket
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From £29.95
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A warm and cosy night’s rest from as little as 3p a night*
Electric blankets do, of course, use electricity. But, when used responsibly, they can actually be a very energy-efficient way to get a warm night's sleep, because they mean you don't need to keep your central heating on for longer than necessary.
The Eco Washable Heated Underblanket from Morphy Richards is a brilliant example of this. According to Morphy Richards, the single version can offer "Safe all night warmth from as little as 2p a night" or "as little as 3p a night" for the double sized one. These calculations are based on the household being on an Economy 7 night tariff, but even if you're not, it still works out to be very cost effective.
Morphy Richards have also made some improvements to their production to make the blankets even kinder to the environment. They've:
- Removed glues from their blanket manufacturing process
- Reduced the amount of plastics needed for the control switch
- Introduced a new efficient element wire, which has enabled them to add a new eco setting to the control switch
Plus, each blanket comes with a 3-year manufacturer's guarantee.
Curious to see if these cost estimations were true, we set our colleague Jodie a little bit of Christmas homework. We gave her one double-sized underblanket and a Brennenstuhl single appliance monitor and asked her to test exactly how much electricity it used. After a long week of shivery winter nights, Jodie was more than willing to help.
"The instructions recommended that for the most energy-efficient result I should turn the blanket on to the MAX setting for the first hour to warm up the bed, then switch it to the eco-setting for a steady, low heat input through the night. Unfortunately, I lost track of time so probably left it on the MAX setting for a bit more than hour, but I'd still only used 77 Watts when I checked the energy monitor. By that point, the bed was a nice, comfortable temperature for me to get to sleep, so I didn't really need the blanket on after that." Jodie, Marketing Executive, Good Energy.
Jodie is a Good Energy 100% renewable electricity customer on a single tariff rate of 14.74 pence per unit. So, based on her 77W energy consumption confirmed by the Brennenstuhl monitor we can calculate that the total cost of her cosy night's sleep was just over 1p.
Based on these results, we also worked out that if she continued to use the blanket in the same way every night in January, it would only cost her 35p for the whole month. If she were on an Economy 7 tariff it would only cost 19p. Unsurprisingly, as soon as Jodie heard this she quickly volunteered to keep the blanket for another month - just to check of course! Until then, her initial product review can be found below.
Technical Information
Delivery Information
This item is posted directly from Good Energy Shop via Royal Mail 1st Class Recorded Delivery. A signature is required on delivery. If you are not home when your item is delivered, you will receive a Royal Mail Missed-Delivery Card which will enable you to collect your item at your local sorting office, at a time that is more convenient for you. If you do not receive your order, or a card within 3 working days, please contact us on 0845 456 1640 and we will be able to track and trace your parcel for you.
Please note that due to the weight and size guidelines of the Royal Mail delivery service, this product has an additional delivery charge of £2 per item.
The blanket comes with all the instructions in a neat little zip-up bag - handy to tuck at the back of your cupboard until you want to put it away when it gets warmer. The blanket itself is very lightweight and surprisingly thin, plus it's reversible so it doesn't matter what side of the bed your nearest socket is on. The control and tie tapes are all attached so you literally just whip it out of the bag and it's ready to go.
It's relatively straightforward to attach to the bed - there are tapes that tie round each corner and one that goes underneath the middle of the mattress. I reckon this could be a bit tricky to tie if you don't have help - especially on a double bed - because you have to be able to lift the mattress up to pass the tape underneath it. Once it's firmly in place, though, you just put your sheet over the top. One downside is that if your bed isn't right next to the wall, you might end up with the lead trailing across the floor to the nearest socket.
The instructions recommended that, for the most energy-efficient operation, you should have the blanket on the MAX setting for the first hour to warm up the bed then switch it to the eco setting for a steady, low heat input through the night. I lost track of time so probably left it on the MAX setting for a bit more than hour, but I'd still only used 77W when I checked the energy monitor. By that point, the bed was a nice, comfortable temperature for me to get to sleep, so I didn't really need it on after that. I have to admit that it wasn't as hot as I'd expected but I think that's because I'd never used an electric blanket before. I thought it would be like getting into a hot bath, but on reflection, that sort of temperature all night would be far too hot. Also because it's so thin you don't notice a difference compared to any other mattress cover.
Overall, I really liked the blanket and it can definitely be very economical - even if you were to keep it on all night at the lowest setting.