Quilt warmth expressed as the number of blankets

A common question in the Australian retail market is: What is the blanket warmth of this quilt?

It's a quaint expression used uniquely in the Australian bedding retail sector. The question is asking a retailer or bedding manufacturer to provide an indication of a quilt's warmth by comparing their various quilts to the number of equivalent wool blankets needed to provide the same warmth.

The problem with such a measure is that nobody knows what the average warmth is of any blanket. The term is thought to originate from the relative warmth of a World War II army blanket, however, no one then or now knows what the actual warmth rating is.

The term is thought to be a scale from one-cool to four-very warm, but this is still a very subjective term without empirical evidence.

Despite the above, the term is still commonly used by both retailers and consumers in Australia even though it is meaningless. The above explanation is merely provided as an informed explanation rather than proposing its continued use.

A far more accurate way of assessing whether a particular quilt weight or warmth suits your personal sleeping needs is to use the Kelly & Windsor BMI Quilt Selector tool. This correlates the thermal performance of a quilt, to your personal body and to your sleeping environment.

We believe this is a much more accurate basis to select the right quilt that suits you. 

Please click here to read the BMI quilt selector article and chart.