Electric Bedding Use in Southwestern Virginia: Energy, Comfort, Safety, And the Consumer

Abstract

Operating characteristics of electric bedding, consumer use of and attitudes to ward electric bedding, and hazards of electric bedding were investigated. The goal was to evaluate the utility of electric bedding for improving thermal comfort of persons attempting to sleep in houses with nighttime temperature settings lowered to 55°F; if universally adopted, this setback could save about one percent of total U.S. energy consumption. Electric blankets and electric mattress pads provide ample heat at “a few pennies a night” with the pads using about half the electrical energy of the blankets. If turned on several minutes before retiring, they prewarm a bed. Most users of electric bedding appreciated the product and followed manufacturers' precautions to improve electrical safety. A major excep tion was the tendency for most electric blanket users to add a warm top cover over the blanket. Some nonusers of electric bedding over‐estimate the cost of operation; others fear shock or fire hazard. Consumer Product Safety Commission data on accidents, investigations, and deaths associated with electric bedding and other consumer products show that electric bedding does present some fire hazard. Current efforts by manufacturers and Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. are intended to reduce the existing level of hazard.