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"  To keep warm on cold winter nights, you may want to use an electric blanket instead of cranking up the heat. (You can save 1 to 2 percent on your energy bill for each degree your thermostat is turned down for a period of eight hours.) Some of these electric blankets will tack on as little as 7 cents per eight-hour night to your energy bill, or just $2.10 a month - so you&amp;#039;ll still come out ahead. We evaluated seven electric blankets to see which will keep you warm. All of the blankets come in queen or kind sizes and have dual controls (so there&amp;#039;s never any argument because someone&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;too hot or too cold&amp;quot;). Be aware: These Blankets should be used alone with no additional covers on top. How We Tested  We evaluated each electric blanket in our climatology chamber to see how fast it warmed up and how evenly it distributed heat. After setting the room to 55 degrees, we turned each blanket to its highest setting and then allowed it to heat up until the temperature became stable. When it did, we shut it off and timed how long it took to cool down. For each blanket, we timed how long it took to reach 70 degrees, the temperature you&amp;#039;re most likely to select, how long it took to cool below 62 degrees, and the average maximum temperature that each reached, in case you like to really &amp;quot;turn up the heat&amp;quot;. Because we know you may be fearful of sleeping with an electric-powered cover, we did safety checks to make sure their plugs don&amp;#039;t get too hot and that they all have a 10-hour automatic shutoff and comply with electrical safety standards for electrically heated bedding. To see what happens when you clean them, we washed the blankets (according to each manufacturer&amp;#039;s instructions) then looked for shrinkage, changes in color, pilling, and other signs of degradation of the fabric. Because they&amp;#039;re your road trip to usage, we assessed the instruction manuals for user-friendliness. We also tested the controls to see how easy they were to operate. Finally, we asked consumers for their opinions about the blankets&amp;#039; controls, appearance, and softness. Overall, our panelists found dial controls easier to use than buttons. They also preferred the soft feel of microfiber fleece to acrylic (but did note that internal wires were more noticeable within the microfiber.)  To see the winners, check out Best Electric Blankets at goodhousekeeping.com Prefer a comforter? See my tips for selecting one. To see how we test products at the Good Housekeeping Research Institute, please go to www.goodhousekeeping.com/ghri tours. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/institute/a23081/6-ways-we-found-the-best-elect/>