'I took Martin Lewis MSE's advice on slashing heating bills and found a buy that costs pennies to run'

Electric blanket from OHS
-Credit: (Image: Manchester Family / MEN)


As the days get shorter and colder, you may start thinking about turning on the heating once again.

Although it may seem tempting, rising costs for our energy bills and pensioners facing a winter without the Winter Fuel Payment, will mean a lot of us cannot afford to heat our homes. To combat this, Emma Gill, Parents editor at the Manchester Evening News, has tried to find alternative advice.

She sought guidance from Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis who states we should 'heat the human, not the home'. So, after purchasing a discounted electric blanket, this is what Emma discovered.

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With only me in the house during the week, it seems a waste of money to heat every room and we've not even had the heating on at all yet. But to keep me a little bit warmer I decided to try out an electric blanket, which is reduced from £46 to £32 at Worsley-based Online Home Shop.

It's easy to use, you literally take it out of the box, plug it in and away you go. There's a button to increase the heat, with one being the lowest temperature and nine the highest. And you can set a timer on it too, for between an hour and nine hours.

Electric blanket from OHS
Electric blanket from OHS -Credit:Manchester Family / MEN

I measured the electricity usage and it came to just 20 watts for an hour, which equates to about 1p an hour. At 130cm by 160cm, it's big but not too big, and very soft, with a smoother fleecy lining on the inside and a fluffy 3cm pile on top.

The remote and wire can be fully removed so that, if you do use it a lot - like I fully intend to - you can stick it in the wash at 30 degrees and it'll be good as new.

I'm clearly not the only one impressed by it. "I love this product as it saves me putting my heating on as much," says one review on the OHS website. "Extremely happy with my throw. Instant heat and soooo cosy!" said another. "Am buying a second one as a gift!"

And a third said: "I love it! I look forward to getting into bed and feeling toasty."

Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis
Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis

The concept of heating the human, not the home, is one that Martin Lewis has spoken widely about and his website has a list of ways people can do that, which includes the likes of hot water bottles, microwaveable wheat bags, hand warmers and even electric gilets.

The OHS electric blanket comes in cream and pink too, reduced from £45 to £37. But I'd say anything that stops you having to turn the central heating on is money well spent.

There are lots more electric blankets on the market, including this similar-sized grey fleece one costing £49.99 at Amazon, this Luxury Heated Throw costing £50 at Argos and this Reversible Sherpa Fleece Electric Throw for £60 from Dunelm.

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