Better insulation than down?

[Captn]

Your not dreaming it did happen, we talked about it alot on that thread.

Interestingly, my brother, a hammock neophyte, has been using open cell foam in his hammock. I didn't even know about it until two weekends ago when we spent a 17°F night on Goodwater Loop. He was nice and warm, which has made me interested in open cell foam as an option. I have never tried it because I thought that it would compress and loose it's rating too quickly, but now I have doubts about that. So I will be testing soon...



Just for the record...
Water vapor doesn't move from high heat to low heat, it moves from an area of high vapor pressure (High RH%) to an area of low vapor pressure (Low RH%); the temperature has nothing to do with it. Look up Dalton's Law of Partial Pressure.

It is natural to assume that it from a temperature difference since in our cases the bags are warmer than the surrounding air. But in the case of cool temperatures, and we are in our bags, but it is raining (close to 100% RH), the RH% in our bags may be very close to the RH% outside our bags, even though there is a good bit of temperature difference.

I am glad you open cell foam is working so well; makes me more confident in my thinking.

No Beans for dinner then .....

[white_monkey]

Why shred it at all?

If there's no concern about the compressed size, just put long sections in, and sew away! If it's not shredded, you'll have no "settling" issues at the low end of the hammock (leaving the head/feet areas with no fill).

Just a thought... I could just as easily be wrong!

That would probably work too...but, part of my motivation to shred was to find a good use for the foam scraps that I have, instead of having to cut into a new sheet (waste not want not). I'm not too worried about the "settling" since all of the OCF that I've used tends to do the opposite, being difficult to shift and slide around. I guess it will depend on how tight I pack the baffles with the foam.
There are probably 10 different ways to do it, which is a good argument for the effectiveness of these forums, since I've already gotten quite a few good ideas. I love this forum.

[Rat]

Could I humbly offer a correction to the way you have expressed this?

Vapor pressure is a property of a substance... I think you meant to say partial pressure, which is the relative concentration of a substance in the vapor phase. Doesn't change what you said... water vapor migrates from higher to lower relative humidity.

Also, students of the Gas Law, will find it difficult to accept the statement, "temperature has nothing to do with it."

- MacEntyre
Separator of Fly Poop from Pepper (ie, nitpicker extraordinaire)

True, I misused the term vapor pressure, and I didn't want to say gas pressure because most people don't think of water vapor as a gas. Regardless, partial pressures (in gas or water vapor) will migrate from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure due to a pressure difference not a temperature difference.

Also, students of the Gas Law, will find it difficult to accept the statement, "temperature has nothing to do with it."

Doesn't make it less true tho.

-Rat
Too dense for my own good sometimes.

I have been trying to find the right OCF to try out, there are a lot of options out there. This may be more difficult than I originally surmised. Methinks I should just get some and try it, stop over thinking everything...