The short answer: if you sleep in a heated bedroom, choose an all-season duvet. Choose a winter duvet if your bedroom is cooler than about 16°C (61°F) or if you feel cold even in a warm room. Our all-season alpaca duvet holds 400 g of fleece per square metre, and the winter duvet 600 g/m².
What fill weight means
Fill weight is the mass of filling per square metre of duvet, given in g/m². It tells you how much material is inside, but not directly how warm the duvet is, because different fillings give different warmth for the same weight. A down duvet needs far less filling than an alpaca duvet to give similar warmth. So compare fill weights only between duvets with the same filling.
From the fill weight you can work out how much filling the whole duvet holds. For our alpaca duvets it looks like this:
| Size | All-season, 400 g/m² | Winter, 600 g/m² |
|---|---|---|
| 70×100 cm | approx. 280 g fleece | approx. 420 g fleece |
| 140×200 cm | approx. 1.1 kg | approx. 1.7 kg |
| 160×200 cm | approx. 1.3 kg | approx. 1.9 kg |
| 200×200 cm | approx. 1.6 kg | approx. 2.4 kg |
| 200×220 cm | approx. 1.8 kg | approx. 2.6 kg |
| 240×220 cm | approx. 2.1 kg | approx. 3.2 kg |
These figures are for the fleece alone. The finished duvet weighs a little more because of the cotton shell.
All-season duvet: right for most bedrooms
Choose an all-season duvet if your bedroom is heated in winter and does not get very hot in summer. A commonly recommended bedroom temperature is around 16–19°C, and in that range an all-season alpaca duvet works for most of the year. It is also the better choice if you sweat at night, because a thinner layer of fleece lets heat and moisture escape more easily.
All-season alpaca duvet, 400 g/m²
For heated bedrooms and for people who sweat at night.
Winter duvet: for cool bedrooms and cold sleepers
Choose a winter duvet if your bedroom is cooler than about 16°C, for example in a house where the heating goes off at night, a summer cottage or an older building that is hard to keep warm. It also suits people who feel cold even in a warm room. Our winter alpaca duvet has half as much fleece again as the all-season version, so it is noticeably heavier and warmer.
If you rarely feel cold and sleep in a heated bedroom, a winter duvet may be too warm for most of the year.
Winter alpaca duvet, 600 g/m²
For bedrooms below about 16°C and for people who feel the cold easily.
What about summer?
We don't make a summer duvet. On hot nights many people sleep under just the duvet cover or a thin blanket and put the all-season duvet away in its cotton bag. If your home changes a lot between winter and summer, consider a four-season duvet, which is two thin duvets that fasten together and can be used separately or as one. Other makers offer these; we don't.
Store an alpaca duvet in a breathable cotton bag in a dry place, and air it outdoors before the season starts.
When two people feel the cold differently
If one person in the bed feels cold and the other sweats, a single shared duvet will always be a poor compromise for someone. In Denmark, where I live, many couples sleep under two separate duvets, and it works well: each person picks their own warmth, for example an all-season and a winter duvet in 140×200 cm. Sizes for couples are covered in the duvet size guide.
How our two fill weights are made
We make our duvets once a year, from the fleece of the May shearing. Both weights are quilted the same way: the stitching keeps the filling from shifting, and there is no interlining between the fleece and the shell. The only difference is the amount of fleece.