Got aches and pains? Or you might even want to keep a pet cozy during the winter… Electric heating pads are perfect to solve these problems. You simply plug it in and enjoy the warmth radiating from the pad. No need for hot water or preheated items that lose warmth after a while. The only thing you might be concerned about is the power consumption.
Below we will discuss and test heat pad wattage, explain how to work it out for yourself, and calculate the total electricity required.
How Many Watts is a Heating Pad?
The average heat pad uses between 20 and 60 watts.
The exact number depends on the size and model of your heat pad. For example, a small 17 x 11 inch pad uses 20W, while larger 40 x 11 inch mats draw over 50W.
The power consumption is directly related to the size of your heating pad. This is because bigger mats include larger heating elements. The larger the heating element the more electricity it uses to heat up.
How to Find Out Your Heat Pad Wattage
There’s 3 ways you can work out the wattage of a heating pad.
- Check Product Specification
The quickest way is to look at the heat pad’s specification. The watts (W) is usually written on a sticker on the base of the appliance. If not, you can check the user manual or the manufacturer’s website for technical details.
- Use a Wattmeter
A wattmeter is brilliant for getting a live wattage reading and tracking total energy usage of any appliance. You can simply plug it into your heat pad to get instant information.
I used one to test my heat pad which gave a live reading of 36.5W.
- Wattage Formula or Calculator
If you know the amperage and voltage of your heat pad you can use this to find the maximum watt rating. Simply use the formula Amps x Volts = Watts. Or you can head over to the ‘Watt Calculator’ to work this out.
Heat Pad Wattage Examples
Let’s take a look at specific examples of how many watts a heat pad draws. Below is a collection of modern heat pads with their listed power ratings.
| Heat Pad Model | Power Rating (Watts) |
| Dreamland Intelliheat Heat Pad | 15 |
| Habistat – Heat Mat – Carbon Impregnated Cloth 17×11 inch | 20 |
| ProRep Heat Pad 17×11 inch | 20 |
| Komodo Advanced Heat | 30 |
| ROOT!T Hobby | 30 |
| HeatPad Mirror Heat Demister | 50 |
| Habistat Heat Mat 47×11 inch | 60 |
| ROOT!T Hobby Large | 60 |
As you can see, the power ratings vary between different heat pads. So you should take the time to check your own appliance.
How Much Electricity Does a Heat Pad Use?
You can use heat pad wattage to work out how much electricity it uses. Plus this can be useful in understanding how much it costs to run your heat pad.
A watt (W) is a measurement of power at a single point in time. A watt-hour (Wh) is the total amount of electricity used in an hour. For example, a heat pad drawing 40W would use 40Wh when running for an hour.
Happily, electricity bills are recorded in kilowatt-hours (kWh). A kilowatt is simply 1000 watts. So a 40W heat pad running for 1 hour uses 0.04kWh.
In reality, you might use a heat pad for 2 hours a day. This means a mid-sized heat pad uses about 80Wh or 0.08kWh electricity a day. That’s 2.4kWh a month and 29.2kWh a year.
That’s a rough electricity cost of $0.36 a month or $4.38 a year to use a heat pad for 2 hours every day.
Using a Heating Pad Off-Grid
If you’re planning to use your heat pad in an off-grid situation like a power outage, RV, boat, or semi-truck, the information above is important. It enables you to choose the correct electrical equipment, plus work out the run time.
You can either use a power inverter, portable power station, or generator to generate AC electricity.
To make sure everything runs smoothly you should check two things on this equipment – wattage capacity and total energy capacity.
Your power source, like an inverter, should have a wattage capacity of at least 20% more than your heat mat. This ensures it will be able to deliver enough power as they are never 100% efficient.
Secondly, you need to ensure your energy source, like a battery, has enough energy to run the heat pad for the required amount of time. As we already know, it might use 40Wh electricity for each hour. This is the equivalent to 3.3Ah on a 12V battery.
How Many Watts Does a Heat Pad Use Summary
I hope you now understand how many watts a heating pad uses.
It is clear these are low powered heating devices that can keep you warm without using a ton of electricity. You could easily soothe aches and pains for a couple of hours every evening without a worry. Plus you could happily run one in your RV or campervan without depleting your batteries.
