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 Topic: New at camping - cold at night
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12/7/2013 at 1:28pm
Location: aberdeen
Outfit: 2 Gelert tents
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I find a good olfashioed hotwater bottle is brilliant. put it in a wee while before you go to bed and it heats the inside of your sleeping bag.
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Brenda
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13/7/2013 at 12:00pm
Location: wirral
Outfit: Outwell Nevada m Vango sigma 300
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Hot water bottle, they are great.
Upgrade your sleeping bag. Use a sleeping bag liner (I use a fleecy one, for the colder months).
Insulate between you and the bed. With airbeds there is only thin plastic, between you and a block of ice air. I use faux fur blanket, sheep fleece and blankets. Duvets in colder months. Also helps with absorbing condensation.
Thermals, socks, hat. With that lot. you won't need heating, through the night, you will be too hot
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Make sure you are warm before you go to bed. A walk will do. Your bed will already be warm with the hot water bottle.
I love my air bed. I have it nice and soft, so I can sink in.
I have tried the SIMs out in camp shops. For me I find them too uncomfortable. It includes the thickest ones you can buy.
Have fun,
heath63
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New Year: Hesketh Bank
Feb/March: Red Squirrel
March: lakes
June: Morecambe
Aug: Lake District(not camping camping)
October: Red Squirrel
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13/7/2013 at 6:03pm
Location: durham
Outfit: Tent Hi Gear Zenobie 6 Vango Icarus 3
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Hat in summer months no way! But everyone is different. Been camping twice in last month. Last time even forgot my pj's and was worried about the cold but, was so warm. just wore t shirt and I too have a camper lux sleeping bag and its a great, worth the money.
And agree with others insulation is so important too
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09/8/2013 at 11:10pm
Location: Lancashire
Outfit: None Entered
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I'm a newbie too and i get very cold at night, even in a house! I've already found the solution, go and camp in France
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10/8/2013 at 7:30am
Location: Suffolk
Outfit: Eriba Famila 320
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My friend bought 2 of those beds mentioned above and couldn't get them and all their other camping kit in the car, so ended up using the airbed again.
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10/8/2013 at 8:07am
Location: Gtr. Manchester
Outfit: Going Go Pod
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We have always camped with an air bed. Picnic blankets under airbed (got a carpet now) 4.5 tog duvet on too of air bed and in sleeping bag on top. I just wear a T shirt and hubby wears zero. Never been cold yet. Have a fan heater which is on for 20 mins or so before we go to bed and similar in the morning just to take the damp edge off things. I have never left the heater on all night. I have never camped past end of October or before mid March though due to having asthma and cold being a real trigger for me. Everyone is different but I would be boiling my backside off with some of the things you guys are doing. This time of the year the nightime temps are so warm.
Hope you can get the kit together that suits you. That's part of the fun of camping.
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Suzanna
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10/8/2013 at 10:46am
Location: Moray Scotland
Outfit: Madjai
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Quote: Originally posted by BCML on 13/7/2013
Wow, I'm surprised how cold people get in the night - maybe because we sleep with the bedroom windows fully open all year we're more 'conditioned'? Anyway we have a thick Outwell Vacanza air bed with Go camping rolls underneath (2single mats side by side) and our duvet from our bed at home. Works an absolute treat! 
I do wonder if the temperature you are used to at home plays a part. Like yourself, we usually have the windows open at night. We also live in an old, draughty cottage with no central heating (just a woodburner in the living room) and this will be the first year we will have double glazing for the winter.
All of us (myself, hubby and three kids) tend to be too hot rather than too cold in most situation. The kids and I wild camped last September and were all toasty in our shelters (tarps over handmade wooden frames) with just roll mats, layers (thermals, long sleeved t shirt, fleece jumper, socks and hats) and sleeping bags. I got soaked (old, leaky tarp plus a very wet night) to the point my sleeping bag needed wringing out in the morning but was not uncomfortably cold. For the camp in November I bought myself one of these http://www.militarymart.co.uk/index.php?_a=product&product_id=1892 mainly for the waterproofing qualities but the mat is fab as well. Very heavy and bulky though. Sleeping around the fire, inside that plus sleeping bag and layers, even in November in Scotland, I was too warm and had to remove some layers!
If you feel the cold, thermals are a good investment along with cosy socks and a hat (you lose a huge amount of heat through your head) and as others have said, try to avoid getting cold in the first place. It is difficult to warm back up once you are feeling cold. Several layers are also better than one thick layer as the air between the layers provides insulation.
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Bee
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10/8/2013 at 1:38pm
Location: Scotland.
Outfit: Conway Camargue Lots of Vangos. .
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I insulate the top of the airbed with a fleece blanket held on by a fitted sheet. On top of that we use 2/3 season Vango square sleeping bags in the summer months. I keep a fleece blanket and a flat sheet nearby though, I've ended up with the fleece blanket inside my sleeping bag on colder nights or just under the sheet with or without blanket on hotter nights. In the cooler months we have fleece liners for the sleeping bags.
A word on using blankets on top of sleeping bags. Sleeping bags suitable for tents should have a synthetic shell, this is made from a hi-tech fabric that allows water vapour to pass out of the bag but not back in again. If you use a cotton backed sleeping bag on an airbed you'll end up with your back in a damp patch as your sweat condenses against the colder airbed. Similarly if you put a blanket on top of your sleeping bag you'll not only compress the loft of the bag, making it colder, you'll interfere with the water vapour wicking away from the bag. The best place for a fleece blanket or liner is inside the bag with you, you'll create an extra layer of warm air between you and the fleece which will keep you warmer than if the blanket is on top of the bag.
And for newbies, it's very important to air out bedding every day. Open out sleeping bags and if it's sunny outside sling them over the car bonnet to dry, plus any blankets etc. Or leave them open over the camp chairs inside the tent when you go out for the day, if it's raining, though this does keep moisture inside the tent. Open up the tent as much as possible to allow the tent to air out and prop mats and airbeds up on their sides a bit, to air out any damp underneath. Failure to do this usually means cold and damp bedding when you go to bed at night, and it's not unknown to grow a nice layer of mould on the underside of an airbed if it's been unaired for a few days.
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10/8/2013 at 1:56pm
Location: Oxford
Outfit: helsport Kongsvold
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Lots of good answers there, but the OP did say he was backpacking and whilst under mattress, over mattress, high tog duvets etc are great they aren't really any good for backpacking,where the only real answer is wear some clothes and get a decent sleeping bag.
Someone asked is it ever safe to have a fire in a tent. The answer is yes, under the right conditions. The right conditions are a sufficient flow of oxygen. Some thing like a lavvu or teepee type tent which as low down inlet vents and a vent in the roof. Carbon monoxide is only formed when hydro-carbons are burnt with insufficient oxygen.
In very cold climates one pope use wood burners with both an out et flue and a flued air intake so they can completley seal their tents.
We frequently have a fire in our tent, but never let it urn all night. Just habit I suppose was always taught to put the fire out before bed at home
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10/8/2013 at 3:50pm
Location: Scotland.
Outfit: Conway Camargue Lots of Vangos. .
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I didn't realise the OP was backpacking, I had to look at his posts in other threads to find this out. It's difficult to answer questions accurately if the OPs don't provide the parameters! Yes, a good lightweight backpackers sleeping bag is the way to go here but they're not cheap. I was lucky enough to land a used once Vango Venom 300 on ebay for my son for his DofE, but it still cost an arm if not the leg. And cellular foam or self inflating mats are x10 warmer than airbeds.
If there's two folk in a Banshee (which I belive the OP just bought) though they'll be able to keep each other warm just from the close proximity though, have to say....;)
A fire in a Banshee would be a very bad idea though. I've cooked in a cotton canvas Force 10, using a stove at the extreme outer edge of the porch as the rain tipped down outside but I was young then and hadn't seen a tent catch fire.
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