The short answer
An electric blanket is a heating wire in fabric. Current runs through the wire, the wire gets hot, and your skin warms by touching the hot surface. A far-infrared topper is a radiant system: a fine, flexible yarn gives off far-infrared light, which is invisible, and your body absorbs it as warmth. The surface stays comparatively cool; the warmth goes in. One heats the blanket. The other warms you.
Conduction versus radiation
There are two everyday ways to get warm. Touch something hot — a radiator, a mug, a wire — and heat conducts into your skin. Or sit in the sun on a cold day and feel warm without touching anything: that is radiant warmth, absorbed by the body directly. Far infrared is the part of sunlight you cannot see but can feel. A stone that has sat in the afternoon sun gives off the same thing after dark, which is why a sun-warmed rock feels different from a hot-water bottle even at the same temperature: the rock warms you through; the bottle warms the patch it touches.
An electric blanket lives entirely in the first category. A far-infrared topper lives in the second. Kozy's Litual emits at 89.9% emissivity — a measure of how much of its energy leaves as radiant far infrared rather than surface heat.
Why it matters at 2am
Skin that is being heated by contact eventually gets too hot. The body notices, you half-wake, and the blanket ends up on the floor. Owners of electric blankets know the routine: warm it up, get in, turn it off, get cold again around four.
Radiant warmth does not run that loop, because the surface against your skin never becomes the hot thing. The warmth goes into muscle, the skin stays comfortable, and the bed can stay on with a timer for the whole night. It also lets you do the thing sleep research keeps recommending — keep the room cool — because the topper is warming the body, not the air.
Voltage, EMF and safety
Most electric blankets run on mains electricity, which is alternating current at 230 volts in Europe. Litual runs on 24 volts of direct current through an adaptor — the same low-voltage class as a laptop, and the class used in surgical and medical equipment, chosen there because it can be controlled finely and is safe close to the body. That matters for two reasons. Low voltage is inherently safer to have wrapped around a sleeping body. And direct current does not produce the alternating electromagnetic fields that mains-powered heating wires do; Litual's system, including the controller, emits no harmful EMF.
Litual also switches itself off. The timer runs up to 12 hours; the temperature sensor and the controller talk to each other all night; and the yarn is coated in Teflon, which keeps it waterproof and lets the whole topper go through a washing machine. It is CE, UKCA and OEKO-TEX® certified.
What it costs to run
Litual draws its full 100 watts (for a two-person topper) only while the bed comes up to temperature — usually the first half hour or so. After that it drops to a trickle. Over a night it uses about the electricity of toasting two slices of bread. Electric blankets vary widely, but a blanket that keeps a hot wire hot all night is doing more work than a system that only tops up.
What far infrared is not
It is not a sauna. You do not sweat. It is not red-light therapy, which is a visible wavelength you sit in front of. It is not a medical device, and Kozy does not make medical claims for it. It is warmth — the same warmth as a sun-warmed stone — placed under your fitted sheet so that it reaches you without any effort on your side.
Five questions to ask before you buy either
Does it warm the surface or the body? If the fabric gets hot to the touch, it is surface heat. What voltage does it run on? Mains or low-voltage DC. Does it switch itself off? A timer and auto shut-off are not optional for something you sleep on. Can it be washed? Properly, in a machine. Does each side have its own control? Two people rarely want the same temperature.
Questions people ask
Is far infrared safe to sleep on all night?
Litual runs on 24V DC with a timer of up to 12 hours and automatic shut-off, and emits no harmful electromagnetic fields. It is designed to stay on while you sleep. As with any warming product, people who cannot sense heat normally should check with a doctor first.
Does far infrared feel hot to the hand?
Usually not — and this surprises people. Touch the topper briefly and it may feel only slightly warm, because the warmth is meant to go into the body lying on it, not sit on the surface. Lie down for a few minutes and the difference is obvious.
Can I use a far-infrared topper on a memory-foam mattress?
Yes — spring, latex, memory foam or a roll-up mattress. It lies between the mattress and your fitted sheet.
Is it the same as a heated mattress pad?
Most heated mattress pads are electric blankets in a different shape: a heating wire warming the surface. A far-infrared topper is a radiant system. The shape is similar; the mechanism is not.
Figures for Litual — 24V DC, 89.9% emissivity, 100W peak, 12-hour timer — are from the Litual user manual. Nothing here is medical advice.