reflector test

[Man of Tanith]

Afternoon All
last night I performed my reflector experiment detailed in the winter crafting thread.
First I got the tarp up and the stove going for a brew

Then started work on the reflector with my trust GB SFA and a borrowed sledgehammer

Finished reflector

At this point the weather decided to give me a shower so I took shelter under the tarp made a brew and battoned some sticks to light the fire

Got the fire going with some birchbark and tinder card

I then spent the rest of the afternoon reading a book-Arrowland by Pete Kane and brewing up copious amounts of tea

every half hour I took two temperature readings one from inside the tarp and one from behind the tarp about ten paces distance away to allow any potential heat from fire to have disappeared into the general surroundings.
From 15.30 until 18.00 I used the reflector pictured above and from 18.30 until 21.00 I used split logs to form the reflector like so

now for the temps I am just going to list them all and hope someone is interested enough to do any further maths they might wish to(d grade maths student I'm afraid).
All temps are in degrees celcius

Time Tree Tarp Difference
15.30 5 20 15
16.00 4 20 16
16.30 2 18 16 windy
17.00 2 22 20 raining
17.30 1 16 15
18.00 1 12 11 sunset approx
Split log reflector
18.30 1 22 21
19.00 1 18 17
19.30 1 20 19
20.00 1 14 13 fire somewhat burnt down
20.30 0 12 12 still burnt down
21.00 0 18 18

At this point after a hectic week of too many early mornings I gave up so I did not take any more temp readings and did not do the space blanket covered reflector but I have plans to do another night next week so I will endevour to take those next time.
I then hunkered down with the last of my book and slept from 22.30 until i woke up at 02.20 in need of a comfort stop. to say it was brass monkeys is an understatement!

Just from these readings it shows that a reflector can definately bounce back some heat and is certainly a good idea to build when possible. there doesnt appear to be a great difference between spilt logs or just standard logs although perhaps if I did it over several evenings it might give more detailed records. Perhaps another time.

Hope this has been of interest to you all

 

[rik_uk3]

Works a lot better if you put tin foil over the logs; really does reflect well, nice test though

 

[Man of Tanith]

As i said i originally planned to wrap it all in a space blanket as a third test but was knackered
next time i'll try it out and add to the results

 

[bikething]

It would have been interesting to have some readings using the fire without the reflector to give some indication of the difference between a plain fire, And a fire with a reflector?

 

[Man of Tanith]

another test for another day that one

 

[Retired Member southey]

Nice work dude! it will be good to see the no reflector temps, as if needed its a great excuse to get out,

 

[Man of Tanith]

its on the list of things to do mate

 

[Tengu]

I like this, seeing what does and doent work

 

[Barn Owl]

Thanks for that Sam.

Very interesting,looking forward to the silver blanket results.

 

[Man of Tanith]

All being well the silver blanket and possibly no reflector tests will be done next weekend if i dont get involved with trick or treating with shan.
if i do then i will do them next oppourtunity i get.
was quite fun to do actually and gave me an excuse to do nowt but drink tea read my book and gaze at the fire a lot

 

[Doc]

Good work Sam.

I think it's a great idea to actually test techniques out objectively. I have a nagging feeling that some of the techniques you read in books don't actually work. There is no substitute for testing.

 

[Man of Tanith]

Whilst i have read a range of bushcraft/outdoors skills books and got the theory of a lot of things the practical application of the theory is a very different box of badgers, so doing these tests is good as it encourages me to use the theory i've absorbed through the years.

Also up my sleeve to test at some point is the idea i got from my old manager who used to heat stones in the fire then bury them in a trech on top of which he would then place his bed roll.
Whilst not so easy to record results i think it would be a useful experiment(if i dont burn my bivi bag obviously )

Anyone got any suggestions for any other experiments i could try? or one's they would like to but dont want to/dont have suitable area to test them out?