Fleece as soft-side insulation?

And to think FWC and ATC get to look at the results of your research nearly cost free.

Yeah, I'm hoping that if this works out that they'll send me campers to test.
Marc@XP, you can get in on this great opportunity, too, if you want me to test your XPCamper V2 -- for free! PM me and I'll send you my shipping address.
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Today I received the Arctic Pack material from Stan/Four Wheel Campers. Thanks! :)
He sent two 10-foot x 15-inch pieces, so I'll sew them together along the long edges to make my test piece. (I won't attempt to have openings for windows -- "keep it simple" is my motto! ;))

I picked up the FLIR IR camera from work today. I need to find my adapter to connect the Firewire cable to my laptop...I have one somewhere.

--------------------------------
I plan to do these tests at home, in the yard/driveway, for a couple of reasons:
  • I'll heat the interior with an electric space heater (plugged into a garage outlet) -- this will provide a more-uniform interior temperature than the camper furnace or catalytic heater.
  • I want to eliminate wind-effects from the test as much as possible, and I have lots of trees in my yard which break the wind.
I just need to get out my sewing machine (bought a year ago and never used) and familiarize myself with it and get sewing! Sewing will be attaching some Velcro on the edges of the fleece and the Arctic Pack and sew the two strips of Arctic Pack together -- about as simple as it gets.
 
OK, with the IR/thermal camera, so far I've learned that my nose is the coldest part of my face:

ir-me.jpg

This camera (which costs somewhere in the $$$$+ range
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-- wish I owned it! ) and associated software is very cool -- with adjustable emissivity (e.g., I entered the correct emissivity for human skin = 0.98) and temperature scale/range, etc.

The weather forecast for Bend for the next few days -- especially the low temps -- looks very conducive to running my camper-insulation experiments! :)
20111203-2.png

Turns out, though, that I only get to use the IR camera over the weekend, and I probably won't have time to get everything done in that time (since it takes time for each new insulation-configuration to come to steady-state...and because I'm not done with the sewing/set-up). But since I already have the closed-cell foam and Reflectix available/ready from past real use and since the "nothing" control is always ready I can at least get some interesting pictures with those three variations.

The main experimental data will be based on my IR thermometer, anyway -- not the camera -- so I'll proceed with the full tests as I'm ready.
 
But since I already have the closed-cell foam and Reflectix available/ready from past real use and since the "nothing" control is always ready I can at least get some interesting pictures with those three variations.


Woot! :)
 
NOTHING OFFICIAL YET...but it appears that Reflectix is better than nothing!
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The air temperature was about 25° outside and 55-57° inside.

Control: Nothing inside the soft-side:
gallery_2431_355_98149.jpg


Reflectix inside the soft-side:
gallery_2431_355_15834.jpg

In fact...Reflectix seems to be better insulation than the insulated hard-side...
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My hand-held IR thermometer more-or-less confirmed the IR-camera result: the Reflectix side was ~ 25° and the Control was ~ 35°
The careful observer will notice and wonder why the truck-bed sides seem to be a little warmer on the Control (right) side than on the Reflectix (left) side. Could be some instrument/measurement flaw or it could be because I had run the truck engine a few minutes before this test (to move it forward a few feet) and the exhaust pipe exits on the right side.

OK...this was just kinda quick-and-dirty since I only get the fancy FLIR IR camera for the weekend, and -- as I said -- the IR thermometer is the official measurement, not the camera.
If I was at work I'd never share this kind of data with a "boss"...they get preliminary data stuck in their heads and seem to forget the "preliminary" qualifier!
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More to come by tomorrow night...
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:) First results! :)

I was wondering if the difference in the truck bed sides was because a prevailing wind was transporting heat more efficiently on one side.
 
I was wondering if the difference in the truck bed sides was because a prevailing wind was transporting heat more efficiently on one side.

That's a good idea, highz -- what I would have thought...and there could be some slight airflow, but right now we're under a strong high-pressure situation -- with "air stagnation advisory" in Central Oregon, so there's not much/any wind. So, because of that lack of wind (and the temps) this is a great time for me to do this work.

I'm going to go out and give it another shot and see what it looks like now.
 
In fact...Reflectix seems to be better insulation than the insulated hard-side...
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This is interesting preliminary data. I suppose as heat rises it would be okay to have it more insulated than the lower hard side. Maybe we need to also figure how comparatively insulated the roof is.

What year is your camper? Does it have the fiberglass insulation, or the newer foam?
 
What year is your camper? Does it have the fiberglass insulation, or the newer foam?

My FWC Hawk is a 2005 model. I don't know what kind of insulation it has...but when I press up on the ceiling/roof liner it's squishy. When/did FWC change types of insulation -- from what to what?
 
Maybe we need to also figure how comparatively insulated the roof is.

That's science for ya... pull up a rock to answer a question and you find a nest full of new questions.
And again, many thanks for your efforts.
 
Maybe we need to also figure how comparatively insulated the roof is.

That's science for ya... pull up a rock to answer a question and you find a nest full of new questions.
Tell me about it...
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I did it for 33 years...

The fact that in this very first test other contributors to heat loss appear as significant as the soft-side (e.g., the hard-side) is important, I think. Ultimately, there's not much value in making the soft-side R-1,000,000 if the rest of the camper surfaces are low R-value, and then there are the air-leaks. Like, when a home-energy "audit" is done they always check for air-infiltration, because that can be significant.

I did the test a second time last night...and though the results are the same rank-order (Reflectix > bare-soft-side), the IR-camera was behaving a bit strangely. I've never used it before, and I haven't read the manual, so maybe it has some characteristics that I need to understand. It's the kind of stuff that I hated at work -- data that I can't trust is the worst! I'm kind of a stickler for THE TRUTH.
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RTFM, just a suggestion, mind you.
I only say this as I have several friends that work locally at Flir, and they made me say it!

Absolutely! :)
That's what I tell people when they ask me for help with their computer/software, smartphones, etc.: "What does the manual say about this?"
"Ummm....I don't know -- haven't read it."
(of course, if it's an Apple device they don't come with a manual...because they work so "intuitively"
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. Which is why people had to create the "Missing Manual" series for iPhones and iPads...but don't get me started on my opinion of Apple.
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)

Yes, I'll check out the Manuals (a separate one for the camera and the FLIR software, unfortunately) for help with a couple of settings that might be important.
Honestly, there are some tools that we used at work that we mainly used for making cool graphics for PowerPoint presentations, rather than providing any insight into the physical situation...and I think this is one of them.
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But, as I've said before, my handheld IR thermometer is going to be my primary source of data. As long as it doesn't have any mysterious quirks I should be OK.
 
My FWC Hawk is a 2005 model. I don't know what kind of insulation it has...but when I press up on the ceiling/roof liner it's squishy. When/did FWC change types of insulation -- from what to what?


Sounds like your camper has spun fiberglass insulation. Newer campers have sheet foam insulation, a better insulator if it is installed with care. Not sure when the switch was made, think it was sometime in the late 00's.

Maybe FWC can send you a newer camper to test with. ;)
 
Maybe FWC can send you a newer camper to test with. ;)

Yeah, that's what I'm hoping for. And one or two from ATC and XPCamper, for comparison.
If they knew what we (my former employer) charged for contract research they'd agree that my going rate -- FREE (plus expenses -- such as truck fuel and a sitter for my cat -- for field tests) -- is a steal!
 
Remember all of these heat loss issues can just be overcome with copious amounts of BTU's. Did you get your furnace fixed?
 
Remember all of these heat loss issues can just be overcome with copious amounts of BTU's. Did you get your furnace fixed?

But what about climate change, Craggy? Burning all those non-renewable fossil fuels for human comfort...tsk, tsk, tsk. ;)
 
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