How to heat your cat’s bed for free

If you have a television ‘set top box’ of some sort such as, in the UK, a Sky satellite receiver, you will notice that it emits quite a lot of heat on standby and most people leave these sorts of devices on standby out of convenience. You can turn them off to save a small amount of money annually. There are other TV devices that give off heat. I noticed that my cat liked to lie on the Sky receiver, and he loves his new bed with a roof over his head and a smart foam mattress that moulds to his shape for extra comfort.

I decided to put two and two together and make four, a heated bed. As the heat from the device normally enters the room and is dispersed, it is effectively wasted. It heats the room imperceptible but to all intents and purposes the heat from this machine is wasted. Why waste heat when the heating bills in the UK have skyrocketed by a factor of four. The cost of energy – gas and electricity – has soared thanks to Putin. It is causing real hardship together with inflation which will shortly force mortgage interest payments to unsustainable highs for millions.

This is the sequence of events in pictorially!

First, I saw him enjoy his new bed because he loves a roof over him for security when he sleeps:

Gabs in his bed with a roof and special mattress
Gabs in his bed with a roof and special mattress. Image: MikeB
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Then I noticed this behaviour:

Gabs enjoying the heat from a television satellite receiver which gets warm
Gabs enjoying the heat from a television satellite receiver which gets warm. Image: MikeB

So, I combined the two like this:

Gabs' bed being heated by a Sky television box
Gabs’ bed being heated by a Sky television box. He loves it. Image: MikeB.

I’d expect nearly all domestic cats to prefer sleeping in a bed like this with protection above them. It is all about reassurances. I believe that cat caregivers can do a lot to reassure their cat which leads to greater contentment. And it is out beholden duty to make our darling cats as content as possible ??✔️!

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2 thoughts on “How to heat your cat’s bed for free”

  1. I think this is a great idea! I do wonder if the loose fur might get into the box, and create problems. But if you’ve been doing this for awhile and don’t have any issues, maybe there aren’t any. Please make this shareable so more people can benefit.

    1. I am pleased you like the idea. With the need to save energy any little thing we can do helps I feel. It works fine. My cat pointed me to the possibility as he liked to lie on the device. I was a bit concerned he’d break it so came up with a compromise. Keep well.

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