I agree with the above. However we are not trying to keep warmth in the air bed we are trying to stop the air bed becomming col from the ground. Thus we insulate under the air bed and have a good quality sleeping bag that insulates between us and the air bed - hence keeping the warmth where we are sleeping. The use of the rol up mats, in our experience does make a difference especially if there has been considerable rain and the the ground is cold and damp.
A silvered layer only helps if it reflects radiant heat across an airspace. Sandwiched between airbed and ground it will have virtually no effect. A silvered layer on top of a mattress arrangement with a sleeping bag on top has some effect but not much.
It's insulation you need (wherever you believe it works best), not reflection of radiant heat. An insulator traps air and does not allow it to move freely.
Survivors - what is the end goal? To keep the body warm. You get cold because you lose heat. The airbed gets cold because it loses heat - to the air, to the ground. Therefore if you insulate between the air bed and the ground you are stopping heat loss to the ground, that is how things get cold - cold is not a "thing". So, if you adequately insulate yourself from the airbed you don't need to worry about the airbed losing heat to the ground, you only attend to reducing the heat the airbed draws from you. At the margins putting a mat down will make a small difference, but instead adding that same thermal value to the top of the air bed ie insulating the body, will be much more efficient. Not saying don't put mats under the bed, but understand why you are doing and therefore when you should.
If you also imagine, that cold wet ground you refer to is drawing heat from the whole tent floor - the tarp cools, so the air in the tent will lose heat to the tarp, and cool, and that cooler air will draw more from your "insulated" air bed, whether you have a mat under it or not. So heat is drawn out of it regardless.
The point I was making was that we have never ever been cold, not even in the worst weather (although I admit our trips are sofar limited to May to September inclusive). I do understand what we are trying to acheive and am basing what we do off experience and how we have found it to be.
As the under airbed roll mats (insullation if you like) are limited exclusively to the bedroom pods we have a degree of seperation from the cooling effect on the rest of the tent by being within the bedroom tent within a tent. The area of the air beds that are effectively open to the air in the tent is small with the vast majority of it being insulated underneath by the roll mats and on top by a layer of good sleeping bag and the bit that overhangs the side of the air beds.
Maybe its all in the mind but when we use the roll mats under the airbeds we find it to be significantly warmer than when not using them.
Also in the case of our youngsters it is simpler to insulate undereath the airbeds as anything put on top (including them somtimes) tends to end up on the floor weather attached to it or not.
Always insulate yourself ,not the airbed ,there is to too much surface area exposed to the cold night air to even bother about trying to warm it up . Keep yourself warm and try to keep your heat in .Lots of layers and insulation under a very good quality sleeping bag
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Topic: Insulation
