Make Your Own Space Blankets?

C

chewbacca

Joined
Mar 17, 2007
Messages
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I was looking up radiant barrier insulation for a plant of ours in Kalifornia, and found this stuff called Temptrol.

http://www.radiantbarrier.com/radiant-blanket.htm

What do you guys think? I won't mention pricing, other than to say it is reasonable (no deal spotting here :D) I don't sew but my mom does. My mind ran wild with possibilities. Space blankets, bivy bags, lining clothing...
 
Looks very good indeed. You could make a nice lean to in the summer and keep the heat of and in winter it would reflect radiation from a fire onto your back.

Anyone willing to try it?
 
It sounds like it is made of somewhat porous metal-coated polyethelene. It does not sound like a strong material. It probably stretches and may tear. It is possible that little holes in it would actually tend to inhibit tearing by inhibiting stress concentration.

The true space blanket had a non-conductive mylar layer that was aluminized on the other size. For space craft application you have the mylar side pointed out. With the right thickness of mylar you could make it absorb (and consequently radiate) far-infrared light at 10 micrometers and yet reflect light over the rest of the spectrum. That would let you cool off since humans radiate around 10 microns (the blackbody peak for 300-degrees Kelvin). The reflection at other wavelengths would block the majority of the suns heat since it comes in at shorter wavelengths.

It looks like this product is purely an insulator and reflector. As such it will keep you warm, but is less efficient for keeping you cool.
 
Interesting... I mainly like that it is breathable, though I wonder how much.

The 5% extra reflectiveness doesn't make much difference; humans lose far more heat by convection and breathing, and conduction through the ground, than we do by radiation. But it never hurts to improve things.

I'm assuming that it is windproof; it doesn't say but I would think so. It's described as a 'fabric', and looks thicker than the usual thin mylar film, so is probably more insulating.

Also sounds interesting that it 'evenly distributes body heat' on its aluminised side.

Looks like it might be bulky compared to mylar though.

Interesting...
 
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