Thermal Clothing

[kellys_eye]

Instead of me heating the 'whole world' I need to keep it more local i.e. on my body therefore am considering using thermal clothing (under, over, whatever) to keep warm when outside (or even inside!). There are loads of thermal 'suit's and under garments out there but little in the way of comparison for efficiency, durability, comfort and cost.

Anyone got experience of using such stuff at work and the pro's/con's?

cheers

[Neelix]

For outdoor cooler weather work I have a long sleeve thermal top which I wear over my work polo shirts. I’ve found them a good extra layer as long as you are moving about a bit!

[bourbon]

It's not so much what you wear, It's the amount of layers you have on. There is a point where it becomes impractical. I.E, you can't bend your arms, but more layers is the way to go

[etaf]

just a DIYer/Gardener, whenever i'm outside in the cold, even last few days, sorting the garden out , I have some thin windproof tops that i got from .cotswoldoutdoor.com which keep my top very warm, and a padded Gilet , not massively expensive. I think I also got some leggings from them , but it may have been Mountain Warehouse , as they had a BOGOF offer, again not a lot of money, we have a cold sea wind blow over the garden.
This week i have been outside most days (around 8C wind chill is down to about 6C) cutting all the hedges and pruning trees and cutting the grass.
Workman warm Socks + thick work-trousers from lavantworkwear, the leggings , windproof tops , and a padded Gilet
But as i say NOT trade , so not out all day every day in very cold conditions.

[Grendel]

I've worked on some cold jobs in my time and there were a few things i did. Thick wool socks were sometimes augmented with newspaper foot wraps which were surprisingly effective. Wooly hat of course and i always preferred one that covered my ears. I tried to wearlong shirts to avoid them riding up and leaving me with a cold lower back. I found some German army surplus shirts that were ideal although the arms always seemed a tad short. It may seem to look somewhat rough but the old trick to tie a piece of rope around the waist over a donkey jacket also worked . I suppose it helps trap the air around the body.
An inexpensive method which is good for indoors is to wear cotton flannelette pyjamas under regular clothes. Polyester underwear i'd avoid , cotton is very effective as long as it doesn't get wet as it then loses it's insulating properties. Merino wool or a cotton/wool mix are good and better for outdoors and the wool will still be ok if it should get wet.

[London mike 61]

When I play golf in the winter I wear layers and the most that I wear is 5 layers.
1. A short sleeve t-shirt type vest which I sometimes wear indoors under a polo shirt if I’m too tight to put the heating on or I’m alone in the house.
2. A polo shirt, sometimes a thin golf one and other times a thicker cotton one.
3. A thin v- neck jumper or if indoors a zip up thin shell jacket.
4. When playing golf this layer is always a shell gillet.
5. A thinnish soft shell jacket that is easily removable if I get a bit too warm halfway round.

I do wear a Woolley hat but only when it’s blowing a hooly and bloody cold.

Mike

[Grendel]

I do wear a Woolley hat but only when it’s blowing a hooly and bloody cold.

Mike

The old saying is that if your feet are cold wear a hat.
Most of the time i work in a short sleeved shirt and it's only now starting to get cold enough for an occasional second layer.

[Rorschach]

Long Johns if it's really cold, they make a massive difference but I often find them a bit too warm when actually working, good when standing still a lot though.

I wear a t-shirt as a base layer, quick and easy to wash regularly so outer layers don't get smelly so quick, then a zip up top with a polo style neck, acts like a scarf. over that a down body warmer/gillet, keeps you warm but doesn't add to much bulk to the arms. Over that I wear an old fleece, it adds warmth, pockets, keeps layers underneath clean and washes and dries very quickly.
If I am going to be sedentry a lot in cold weather I wear the long johns and I have a USB heated gillet that I wear underneath the down gillet, it's thin so doesn't add bulk but it really does warm you up a lot, the battery pack is a bit of a lump though so you don't want to wear it when moving about a lot.