Huh? Do you mean a lower voltage? I expect the reason electric kettles are less common here is that most homes have gas cooktops, which work very nicely to boil water for tea. High wattage electric kettles apparently used to be hard to find in the USA, but that's no longer the case.

I too have an electric kettle.

I use it to boil water for making both tea and coffee.

For coffee, a very labor intensive Melitta coffee maker is used.

The Melitta coffee maker is fine with 200 F degree water from any source, be it an electric kettle or a copper kettle sitting on a camp stove. If I can boil water, I can make coffee (or tea). Once I got this and started using it, I realized my old Krups filter and pot were essentially the same except that they were part of an real turn it on and walk away coffee maker. I could easily turn that filter & pot into a manual system and make an even bigger pot. You just need to be able to boil water (even if the electricity is blacked out).

If your coffee filter sits on the pot rather than being part of your coffee maker, you too can go manual.

All of which has nothing to do with electric blankets, but then I don't use or like electric blankets.

I am afraid getting electrocuted by the blanket.

I have used an electric mattress pad for many years now. My current one was a post-winter Walmart sale; $40 for queen size. We also use it for warming up the bed and then turn it down to #1 (or off; my wife sleeps warmer than I do). The cats do not provide enough heat for the two of them and the two of us.

We turn the house thermostat all the way down at night but the room temp rarely drops lower than the upper 50's since we re-insulated and re-windowed the house.

For staying warm while reading or TV I add a stocking cap (no hair any more) and if it is running colder in the house I have the old insulated bib overalls I used for cold weather motorcycling. Fleece sweatpants are also a help.

"I am more interested in certain waking situations -- creating a low-energy-consumption micro-climate where I can read or type"
Doug, have you ever heard of a kind of coat called a "Fishtailed Parka"? http://www.fishtailparkas.com/
It will keep me warm in a gale.

i wore a fishtail in Korea and whatever that white looped inner shell was made of really kept the cold out.
with the high cost of heating homes there are lots of adult footed pajama sort of cozy things around these days.

At least the Pajamagram version is lacking a "trapdoor". It's set up so that you have to take off everything from the top down.

I loved my blanket. Had one growing up - it did fine with the occasional accident. Had another one when I lived in Detroit. That house would literally have a breeze go through it, since the windows were so poorly sealed. Kept the house at 58 for 2 winters - the blanket allowed me to at least sleep well.

For being in a cold room I wear Ugg boots while working at my computer (which is most of the time). I even have poor circulation and they keep me warm.

Also there is a lot of heat loss from the top of your head, so wearing a hat will help keep the rest of you warmer too.

Occasionally, I will also put a small throw over my lap when it is colder, or sometimes I wear long underwear. I have been thinking of getting some flannel-lined jeans (LL Bean has them).

I don't use it, but our cats love to sleep on a an electric throw blanket. One of these on your lap ought to keep you plenty warm. I just saw these at Walmart for around $30.

Yes, the lower voltage means they take twice as long to boil water as UK ones. We in the UK also have gas cooktops, but an electric kettle is quicker for boiling water. (Seriously: I sometimes boil water in a kettle before pouring it into a pan to use on the gas hob.)

Anyway, the point is, there are many ways to boil water, and if in a survival situation you can't manage it, then you have bigger problems. Where-as an electric blanket depends on solely on electricity. (Which is fine if you have a generator with some spare watts, but that's not my situation.)