Effectiveness of Electrical Heating for Improved Thermal Insulation of a Multi-layered Winter Clothing System

Abstract

This paper investigated the impact of the distance of the heating unit from the body in a multi-layered winter clothing system on effective thermal insulation and heating efficiency. To identify changes in the thermal insulation and heating efficiency of electrical heating in different layers inside a winter clothing ensemble, a series of thermal manikin tests was conducted. A multi-layered winter ensemble with and without activation of a heating unit was tested on the thermal manikin under two different ambient temperature conditions (10°C and 5°C). Results show that the effective thermal insulation of test ensembles increased by 5-7 percent with the activation of the heating unit compared to that without the activation. The closer the heating unit to the body, the higher the effective thermal insulation was in both ambient temperature conditions. This trend was more significant at lower ambient temperature