I was shopping for an electric blanket. More and more ads call them "warming blankets" I can only guess this is because of the fine print that says........this blanket is used for warming the bed. Do not sleep under it.
I am going to ask my Doctor next Friday if he sleeps under one.
There is some thought that being next to electric wires causes health problems. That includes houses very near the very high voltage towers and electric blankets. I slep under one for several years as I was growing up and do not seem to have suffered anything. Not sure what the efffects would have been if I had always used one.
The doctor probably does not worry about the cost of heating his house.
More importantly and practically, if you have a reasonable amount of blankets on the bed, you don't need more than a preheat before you get in bed, otherwise you will overheat.
I've got a pad, and use it if my feet are cold. Just turn it on when I get in bed. But it only takes a couple minute to warm up.
--Vic
This may cause problems. Heating pads come or, conceivably they don't sell them anymore but there are probably 10's of millions of them out there that, came with the warning not to sleep on the pad, because it will burn you. My mother knew this but eventually, the fact that one does things when asleep that he or she doesn't really know about caused her to sleep on the pad and indeed she did get burned, and it hurt and took weeks to heal. Maybe because the older you get the longer it can take to heal.
So we have one device saying don't sleep under and another saying don't sleep on. People will get confused.
Very near is right. Practically under them it turned out. Very few of those who thought they might be too close turned out to be.
Electric blankets were redesigned after low-frequency radiation was found to be a problem, so that wires which went one way were adjacent to wires that went the opposite. I'm sure this was partially true before, but only by accident, and I'm sure it's a lot more true now. Last I heard, the low-frequency radiation from one segment of wire was cancelled by that from the adjacent wire.
Like most of these dangers, they only end up affecting less than 1% of the people who expose themselves. But as they get rid of polio, plague, maybe black lung and asbestosis, they start worrying about things that afffect fewer people, and lower percertages of people.
IIIRC, those who used an electric blanket every night all night were still affected less than 3% of the time, maybe less than 1.
I never had one until the 70's when the heat went off for a while in my Brooklyn apartment (the one I wrote about with the pretend plumbler as the landlord). I only used it when there was no heat. Because with steam heat and the normal setup, the tenant has no control over the heat and it was always warm enough when it worked.
But now that I pay for my own heat, and since I don't know if the blanket I'm using now** is one of the redesigned ones, I figure I'm old enough that by the time it gives me cancer, I'll probably be dying of something else anyhow. **I still have the first one. I got the seocnd one free somewhere, and I guess I use it because it might be one of the newer ones.
He actually might, but that's when he's in homeowner's mode. When he's in doctor mode, right or wrong, he won't consider that stuff.
It depends what you mean by reasonable, and whether your claustrophobia or other things will allow you to keep on as many as someone else would.
More about that in another post.
I don't have a down comforter, and so for me, the advantage of the electric blanket is that it is lighter than several blankets and just as warm, and far cheaper than heating the whole house.
Electric blankets also say that they will not feel warm to the touch, and to make sure one is working, to fold several layers together.
My blanket goes up to 9 or 10, and if I set it above 2, it's too hot. I put it between 1.5 and 2.
I have a different theory. At one time (certainly in the 1950s, and even as late as the 1960s), the concept was sufficiently novel that "electric blanket" was a good marketing term. Today, so many things are electric that using the qualifier "electric" makes it sound common rather than novel. Hence, the change of terms.
In other words, even safety and liability are trumped by marketing.
I'm another who likes electricxxxxxxxxheated mattress pads. I find I can set the house thermostat 10F-15F lower with the heated pad compared with the same covers and clothing without the heated pad. However I choose to use it -- in thermal underwear under three down comforters, or in shorty PJs under a sheet -- this is a major improvement.
Edward
I love my heated mattress cover.
Hank
That sounds like these Mr. Heater propane heaters that are used for camping shelters, ice fishing shanties, workshops and garages, and whatever...
They come with a tag that says "Do Not Use Indoors". Ummmmmmmm, there is only two options, Indoors and Outdoors. I can guarantee that even if you had 100 of them, they would NOT heat the OUTDOORS in any state or country. Even if everyone in the USA had one and lit it at the same time, outdoors, you would not end winter cold. So if you buy one, read the tag, and after you read the tag, toss the heater in the trash and save the tag, because you ONLY paid for the tag, since the heater is worthless.
Your other option is to ignore the stuid tag and use it indoors, but know how to provide fresh air to the shed or whatever it is. In other words, use it safely. The same is true for elec blankets and heating pads.
Those warnings are the way the company is REALLY saing "Were not responsible for anything that happens to you", because they know damn well the propane heaters WILL be used indoors and the elec blanket will be used as a blanket. Yes, people have died from propane heaters, and been burned as well as starting house fires from elec blankets. There are ways to use them. Learn how, but ignore the tags that tell you not to use it, or return it to the store unused.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.