Solar Ovens

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Heat packs-another cheap way to keep warm

My father taught me a wonderful trick with those heat packs that are to warm your hands.  Knowing this has allowed always cold me to go ice climbing & camping without shivering for hours!
Activate the heat pack, & put 2 sided tape on it.  Put one in each under arm.  Having heat there stimulates blood vessels, & helps you generate body heat.  This is awesome since sometimes I think I don't generate any body heat myself.  Just putting them on your hands gets them warmer where the pad is touching, but putting them under your arms helps all over.
A couple safety notes:  putting them on your skin may cause burns.  Ideally a thin layer of clothing between the pad & your skin is wanted.  I don't always have this, & did get burned once.
Also, don't use duct tape to attach it if you can help it!  Very hard to get the pads off, & it leaves a lot of residue!
We've also considered sewing pockets into a warm shirt to hold these.

Now this is cheap & effective!  Usually the pads stay warm for about 6 hours.  When I've slept with them, even after they run out, by then the sleeping bag is warm & so I'm warm while I'm in the bag.  Now it would be hard to store enough for an entire winter, but I do have a pile of these around for a short term emergency.  Not to mention all my cold outdoor outings!  Or for prep storage, there are some with longer warming time; up to 20 hours.



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