foil bubble pad

[warbonnetguy]

I think psyculman's -10F synthetic bag is so noncompressible that it acts as pretty good bottom insulation on its own -- good to +18F, actually. I once had a -5F synthetic bag you could sleep in to +15F on the bare ground, no pad, with ease (you just couldn't fit it in a small pack :-). I think he'd need to test the bag alone vs. the bag with pad to figure out how much the pad actually helped.

good point, i've used the older/cheaper syn bags in hammocks before, and the uncompressible fill does insulate under you. works great for car camping in milder weather.

everything i have read says that any reflective material is most effective with air space between the material and whatever it is insulating. the ocf of the ss may create this somewhat. not sure if ccf would do the same, but it seems like it would be most effective when suspended outside the hammock, laying directly on it will eliminate any air space. suspend it from the outside, and you may be able to create some air space. you would want it loose fitting with a tight seal around the edges.

[TiredFeet]

everything i have read says that any reflective material is most effective with air space between the material and whatever it is insulating.

Asked my engineer friend about that.

Her reply: "Depends on where you read it and who wrote the information and the context of what they were writing about. But a reflective material reflects whether there is contact or no contact. A reflective surface does not depend on an air gap in order to reflect electromagnetic energy (light and radiative heat or infrared energy)."

So maybe it depends on what it meant by "most effective". But as far as reflecting the radiative heat energy, an air gap adds no value.

Maybe the writers were concerned about condensation on something such as a space blanket?? In that case an air gap would be of some value, but not much if the air gap is small enough to stop air circulation and thus limit conduction and convective heat loss.

[warbonnetguy]

interesting, when i read it it was talking about construction uses.

[Law Dawg (ret)]

Uses this type of pad, Radiant reflective bubble pad, and no mention of anything else. I wonder about how it works with the Snake Skins for take down and what insulating protection it offers. Obviously Tom & co think it works well enough to offer it.

PS, newb here doing my homework as titanium knees now make much of the groung camping I have always enjoyed very difficult. I am thinking about a HH Explorer Delux A-sym (zippered) with a Supershelter to experiment on insulating. Some type of radiant reflective bubble pad sounds like an option over the krinkly (is that a word?) space blanket in addition to the foam pad the SS comes with. Weight is not a huge factor as I will be using it motorcycle camping.

Thanks for your site y'all, good spot to sort it out.

[jtbradyl]

I have a "Deep Jungle" XL and the reflective pad is rolled up separately. And it is rolled up top to bottom. Although, I also have a "Deep Jungle" regular pad and it has been folded over at the sides and then rolled up. Probably could do the same with the XL pad except that it came stored in a nice long mesh bag so I use that. The reflective pad is quite bulky so i don't see it being rolled up with the hammock and tarp and the snakeskins fitting over. I've been thinking about using a 3/8 in. Volara CC pad (4 lbs. density) That might roll up with the hammock and fit in the snakeskins. Or maybe the maybe for a tighter roll using 2 lb density Volara if it's not too fragile.