The solution is easy - good sleeping bags with baffles around the shoulders and drawstrings around the hood.
Just remember - the low temperature on the bag is for keeping you alive, not comfy. Clothes worn inside the bag can actually make you colder by retaining moisure
I take care to get myself nice & snug, & I've never had a cold night's sleep in a tent, even with ambient temp below freezing (no heaters reqd).
we camped last week for 3 nights. we took a heater but only actually used it on the last morning to take the chill out of the bedroom as it was a bitterly cold night.
we had foam camping mats, then the airbed, then a fleece blanket, then a sheet to hold that in place, then our sleeping bag, then a double duvet, and another single one. the duvets are very thin, but my husband was sweltering! he took all the duvets off until the last night because he was too hot. and we both slept in pjs. i only wore a vest on top & i wasnt cold at all. it was insanely warm. i thought it would be freezing.
We took a heater with us from argos the type that cuts out when it reaches a certain temperature and turns itself back on again. I was all for throwing it out the tent because it was the sound of it going on and off that kept me awake not the cold.
We used a skirting board heater in the bedroom pod when we camped three weeks ago and a 13.5 tog duvet - we were toasty warm. The heater is only 500w, but it's silent and very slim to pack in the back of the car boot - £25 from Argos.
We didn't bother with the heater overnight when we camped at easter and the thermometer said that it was 0c at 7am so it was probably a bit below freezing overnight.
All we had was decent three season sleeping bags (lower comfort of -5c), a coolmax liner for the inside of the sleeping bag (meant to stop the sleeping bags from being washed so often) and a foil reflective mat to go on top of the air beds. We was warm, I wouldn't say toasty warm but more than warm enough considering we didn't have hats on (they make a big difference IMO even with the hood of the sleeping bag pulled tight) or wearing anything other than normal pjs.
However we are switching to camping mats for our next trip, I feel these will be warmer still compared to airbeds.
Quote: Originally posted by brianc on 17/4/2007
We didn't bother with the heater overnight when we camped at easter and the thermometer said that it was 0c at 7am so it was probably a bit below freezing overnight.
All we had was decent three season sleeping bags (lower comfort of -5c), a coolmax liner for the inside of the sleeping bag (meant to stop the sleeping bags from being washed so often) and a foil reflective mat to go on top of the air beds. We was warm, I wouldn't say toasty warm but more than warm enough considering we didn't have hats on (they make a big difference IMO even with the hood of the sleeping bag pulled tight) or wearing anything other than normal pjs.
However we are switching to camping mats for our next trip, I feel these will be warmer still compared to airbeds.
Hi Brian, we were away at Easter too and I had a thermarest mat plus warm sleeping bag (Vango Astral 450 ) with cotton liner, ordinary pjs and a hat. Fan heater on for about twenty minutes between getting in from the pub and going to bed only. I was loads warm enough and NB I am a little old woman who feels the cold eg I had the gas fire on at home last night!
I am so glad that we have the thermarests and good sleepingbags as it must be a nightmare having to take and sort out the mountains of bedding people seem to need otherwise.
Also, we were in a canvas tent with sloping bedrooms and I am pretty confident that that added on several degrees of comfort above the nylon tents with full height bedrooms we have Easter-camped in before eg Montana 6. MT
------------- Tackling life the Western District way
Yup, I agree with the two points that (1) it`s perfectly easy to take enough bedding with you so that you boil in bed (this includes the four-season sleeping bag option) and (2) trying to keep the inside of a huge nylon bag (otherwise known as your tent) warm at night is going to take a huge amount of wasted energy.
Also, it`s not good to rely on EHU to keep warm at night. It`s not uncommon for the EHU to trip under the load of all these heaters going overnight, or for some other reason. There have been recent reports here of folk struggling to keep small children warm at night when the EHU and thus their heaters failed. That`s not good. Have some emergency back up as well, even if it`s just using the dog`s blanket out the car!
Layering is the best thing to do. A pair of thermals, PJs a fleecy top, sleeping bag, blanket on top. When you feel yourself getting warm, remove one of the items, if you still feel yourself being warm, remove another layer. If you start to feel cold add a layer. I slept in a forest in Lincolnshire last year under a bivvy, when it was minus 4, by using my layers I was warm all night and when I woke up in the morning I didn't even feel the morning cold. Still I don't want to do it again as my boots fell out of my bivvy and got frosted over
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Topic: Cold at night
