Quilt color affects performance?

[cmw6300]

One thing I noticed is with lighter fabrics in general is if your baffle material is black, it will show through. I can even see my black baffling through titanium grey. Not a big deal but if you start with black baffle and switch to white after running out of black, you can definitely tell.

[cap624]

In the past, when I walked by the hammock in my bedroom with its Snugpak underquilt, I would think, "Ugh, drab olive." With a newly purchased AHE New River quilt in place, I now walk by my hammock and smile at its brillant blue inside and purple outside (it looks awesome with my ENO yellow/turquoise/purple hammock). So, how does color affect performance? Starting my day with a smile (vs. a grimace) positively affects my performance as a human being.

[Trees company]

Let's say that the effects of color were actually significant wouldn't you want the inside to reflect radiant heat not absorb it and the outside to absorb not reflect? I don't want my quilt heated up by my body I want the quilt keeping my heat in my body.

[Just Bill]

I'd heard of this more as a factor in tarp color to help with condensation.
That said- I agree that if anything- having at least one dark side to help dry the quilt in the sun is a noticeable advantage in a down quilt especially.

Otherwise- good woodcraft suggests having one bright color of something to help aid in a survival/rescue situation. The inside of an underquilt is a nice spot to install a rather obnoxious color but not have to look at it too much... also does help in and uq to have a nice contrast between the liner fabric and your hammock to avoid any accidental misplacement of one's posterior during entry.

[michigandave]

I don't think it really makes any measurable difference that the average person would ever notice.

If anything, the color could come into play when and if you ever try to sell it.

[T- Minus]

Color, hmmm If you ponder what is best, favorite remember that what you see is what is not absorbed by the material. So for example the Color red seen is a item that attracts every color but that and you are seeing the reflection. So your eyes are fooling you. So in reality that shiny new red sports car is not red its everything but. So when I choose a hammock I go by what reflects my comfort and minimizes the attraction of my wallet after all I will be laying in it looking at the sky while everyone else looks on with envy. LOL. Kinda like a back pack, it serves its function and the other people are the ones looking at it, as it stays in a closet or behind me most of the time.

No seriously a darker color lets in less light as you try to go to sleep, bright colors make your eyes want to focus on them, Kinda like a safety orange hat, It attracts your eyes, It's bright, where as a muted color or earth-tone blends into the surroundings and darkness easing from distraction. Or the dashboard effect, its darker cause if it were white it would blind you from the reflection of the sun and not let you see the road.

But if you can manage to close your eyes you will see what color it needs to be to sleep. As far as color drying faster I really don't think it matters as much as the material. In my dryer at the house a black sock dries just as fast as a white one.

[Rynomcavoy]

Thanks for all of the responses guys I think I'm gonna keep with my original color scheme.

Oh, and I don't think I'll have to really worry about drying my quilts often - out here in drought-stricken California, they're more likely to catch on fire than trap water vapor.

[GadgetUK437]

In my dryer at the house a black sock dries just as fast as a white one.

Confusing radiated and convected heat.


--
Gadget.

[Grumpy Squatch]

Let's say that the effects of color were actually significant wouldn't you want the inside to reflect radiant heat not absorb it and the outside to absorb not reflect? I don't want my quilt heated up by my body I want the quilt keeping my heat in my body.

Ding, ding, ding. When performance really matters and money is no object, look to NASA. You'll see shiny mylar wrapping all the things they want to keep heat in or out of. But condensation isn't a problem in space as it is with a sweaty human in a hammock so wrapping a space blanket is usually out. And although fabric color plays a strong role in regulating temperature when exposed to broad-spectrum sunlight, it's a fabric's infrared (IR) emissivity/absorptivity that matters for nighttime insulation. And a fabric's IR emissivity is determined by molecular composition, weave, etc.; its reflectance of visible light (it's color) is utterly unrelated unless special pigments/dyes are used which change the underlying chemical composition significantly. This is a fundamental reason that IR spectroscopy works so well at differentiating organic molecules.

So you should pay more attention to whether the fabric is nylon, polyester, etc. than to its visible color. And even then the differences aren't significant.

Fun read: a report on fabric emissivity (now unclassified) from 1967 military research: http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/665647.pdf.

This is a big deal in the military because a uniform must help camoflage the wearer from IR thermal imaging equipment as well as blend into the background in daylight.

[jadekayak]

Colour does have a effect on heat retention/radiation but I don't think it makes much difference on a comfortable human scale.
Warm "looking" colours can have a phsycolocical effect but not in the dark.

I would just go for colours you like.