A friend would like to be able to turn on their electric blanket at a distance. Has anyone any experience of smart plugs and how this might work?

Not used smart plugs, but we use remote controlled plugs like this in the living room for lamps etc which work very well…

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/321627147035?limghlpsr=true&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=108&chn=ps&device=t&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108

Depends what you mean by ‘at a distance’ though. They’re certainly a lot cheaper than smart plugs.

There are some that seem to operate via an app. I think the idea is when travelling home and thinking how nice it would be to climb into a lovely warm bed you could activate the electric blanket before arrival. Not me obviously. I like a nice cold bed to start with. Same as a nice cold loo seat where coincidentally …, oh, hang on, you didn’t need to know that did you.