An improved heating pad which minimizes or eliminates skin burns due to improper uses in one or more of several ways: by monitoring a total electric power input or output of the heating pad; by monitoring an absolute temperature of each surface of the heating pad; by monitoring a temperature difference between each surface of the heating pad, where a small temperature difference indicates that both sides of the heating pad are covered; and/or by monitoring the duty cycle of a heating element, where a large off portion of the duty cycle indicates both sides of the heating pad are covered.