Cooling that hot bod!
This will be my first year in suit (crosses fingers and toes in hopes that my suit is ready in time) and I was wondering about cooling off. I'm planning to be wearing underarmor under my suit and know about hydration but, there's alot of ideas I have on cooling off.
Last year (07) I dropped off several vapor sprayers (containers filled with ice and water which sprays a increbibly fine mist) in the headless lounge for every one to use, did any one use them? Worth bringing again? I left them last year figuring who ever was in charge of the lounge would box them up for next year.
I know there will be the huge fans as usual but I was planning to rig up a fan of my own with a hose so I could direct the air down my suit better. Has any one tried this before?
My suit won't have room for built in fans so that's out.
Any one else have ideas on how to keep every one cooler during the con? Cattle prod the union guys to keep the ice water stocked?
That is the best information I've heard yet. I'll have to keep that in mind, thanks FT. ^^
I don't seriously foresee anyone dipping their paws in water...I for one can not, since my paws have foam and polyfill in them. Most suiters are very protective of their suits too, and I couldn't ever imagine getting my suit wet on purpose (unless washing), unless I was throwing it out or something.
I would think the con would frown on anyone walking around with dripping hands.
Last year was my first time in full suit, seriously it's not that bad.
Just don't stay outside for long periods of time, since it is hot out there. Indoor con space is pretty good on temp control.
Suggest also, don't get to athletic in the suit if you're not used to the heat. The last thing you want is the paramedics cutting the suit open.
Scope out the fursuit lounges in the convention center and hotel before you do any suiting, makes them easier to find when in suit.
Don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it. Most all con goers understand a fursuit waving it's self to mean that the person is hot. Don't risk not talking in suit for your health. Also don't be afraid to take off your head off if you feel you are about to pass out. Your safety is more important than the illusion.
Well no... I ment remove your paws... then stick your hands in the water... dry them off of course... but I was saying for the ice cubes if you didn't mind them getting a little wet that you could put them back on to hold the ice cubes there.. in which I wouldn't, would be no point to for the fact that you'll just take them off shortly after the ice cubes have been on.
Plus for the beneficial factor of being a headless lounge.. Instead of placing and ice-cube inbetween your wrists... You could take a cold bottled beverage and place it against your fore-head... Having the same cooperative reaction. ^.^
That too. I imagine dipping your feet in ice water would work the same way--your body bases a significant amount of its temperature regulation on the way your feet feel.
You'd have to be a little careful with some of this, of course. I don't fursuit, so i have no firsthand knowledge, but i've heard stories of furs putting internal fans in their suits to blow on the backs of their necks, then collapsing as a result. Cold in the right places can fool the body into thinking it's cooler than it really is and cause unexpected overheating. After all, it's the entire body that needs temperature regulation, not just a few spots.
Actually, I was considering the idea of placing some computer cooling fans on a wooden box, put a block of chemical ice inside, and then have a long piece of Tygon tubing carrying the cooled air from the box. You could then stick the tubing down the neck and try blowing cool air through the entire suit. I have heard of something similar being used in the movies for costumes that can't be removed easily or quickly. I have also heard of leaning boards being used for costumes where the character can't sit down. (These apparently had a spot to stand on and would recline to an adjustable angle.)
I believe that Tygon tubing with a .25 inch inside diameter would be easier to handle than a garden hose. You could also put the Tygon tubing through a tub of ice water to provide more cooling.
That's about the extent of my thoughts so far, but I thought you might find it interesting.
Although that is a good idea... But then you have the issue of some fursuits not being able to have the room to contain that.. Not to mention that if you have cold air blowing on you non-stop that it could cause your body to kind of go into a confusion stage and cause you to pass out.
Also the fact that there will be air conditioning inside the cone...
The headless lounge also helps out big time to cool off... Worse comes to worse, if it gets too hot. Go back to your hotel room and take a break for a little while with the costume off, if need be.. Lay down and rest some.
Best case to help cool down is to be sure to have a water bottle.. I'm pretty sure there will be plenty of ice.. Maybe pack some ziplock bags so that way you can just put some ice when you start to over heat into the bag and place it against your forehead.
There are plenty of ways to resolve becoming over heated when fursuiting.. You just need to pay attention to the signs your body will give you when it comes time to take a break.
Over all... No one should just continue on if they start to feel dizzy because of the heat.
~FoxTrott
It's not very easy to cool air that way. You could experiment, though.
If by "chemical ice" you mean one of those blue ice packs you use in coolers, it's worth a try.
If you mean "dry ice," then that is a very, very bad idea. Dry ice is frozen carbon dioxide, and you do not want to be blowing that through your suit. There is a very real danger of suffocation if you try it.
Yeah, it is very dangerous with dry ice..
But I think the best way if you're really over heating is to give it a break and take off the suit. But I wouldn't think it would get that serious unless someone is hyperactive and doesn't care whether he / she passes out from heat stroke.
^ +1.
The best course of action for cooling your body is letting it do that naturally. For example, if you feel extremely hot, head for a headless lounge and pop that head off. Doing this will allow your body to cool down at a nice pace. If you were to say, go from being extremely hot and jumped into an ice cold pool, you'd probably wouldn't send yourself into shock, but you will jolt your body (ICE COLD SURPRISE!) into cooling down.
If you still feel hot even tho popping your suit head off, do what FT suggested and head to your hotel room and lay down. Take a cool (not cold) shower to help bring your body temperature down.
If you were to say, go from being extremely hot and jumped into an ice cold pool, you'd probably wouldn't send yourself into shock, but you will jolt your body (ICE COLD SURPRISE!) into cooling down.
*nodnods*
Cooling your system down really suddenly like that confuses the heck out of your body, and tends to leave you, for a brief period, a little more susceptible to whatever bug may be going around. And with that many people all gathered together, someone's bound to be just coming down with--or just getting over--something.
If you don't want to go all the way back to your hotel room, even un-suiting and taking some time to just sit in the headless lounge until your body cools down will help a lot, i expect, especially if you follow it by a trip to enjoy the con in your regular street clothes. After all, by the time you're that overheated, chances are your suit is getting a bit whiffy anyway and could use a chance to air out a little.
I definitely meant those blue packs that people put in coolers. Dry ice hadn't even occurred to me, and I would hope that nobody would try it. In addition to the risk of suffocation, the idea of handling dry ice in a crowded room gives me nightmares. From the discussions I saw before, the main goal was to get an air hose inside the suit and cooling the air was secondary. I think the discussion was related to the Robocop or Swamp Thing movies. They had heavy costumes and were working under very hot lights.
If you place the tube inside the suit, it would actually take very little air flow to dramatically change the temperature inside the suit.
Another option would be to use a vacuum cleaner as a blower.
I've tried a cool suit before, one of those commercial ones, and they only keep you cool for about 15 minutes, then you are carrying around 10 extra pounds of warm water.
I have had the best luck with a built-in muzzle fan blowing lightly right on my mouth area. The extra air seems to realy cool me and make it a ton easier to breathe!
It also helps with my claustrophobia.
My fan is just a 12 volt hard drive cooling fan, running on a 6v battery pack. Jameco.com has great battery packs for AA's that have a switch built in to the pack.
My air intake is the inside of the mouth at the top, but my muzzle is hollow so your mileage may differ.
Jeefers
I believe that I was very unclear. The idea of the air hose would only be in the headless lounge. I wasn't thinking of carrying the blower around with you. (However, I understand that DisneyWorld does have a device like that with a small battery powered fan and a chemical ice pack (not dry ice)). I was thinking that removing the head and placing an air tube in the suit might provide faster relief than simply standing in front of a fan with the head off.
Oh wow that cat is thirsty. xD
Kind of scary actually.. Like she / he is saying "you take my water... I scratch your eyes out CAPEESH?"
(If that's even how you spell it xD)
~FoxTrott
The word is spelled "capice", or "capici" depending on the context. In our terrific American English accent, it can easily be degenerated from sounding like "Cap ee chee" to something like "Cap eesh". It looks like six years of Italian in Middle and High School taught me something.
Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.
What's the plans for the headless lounge?
How much power is available?
I just had my first suiting experience, was a con on a different level
compared to the usual wandering about and exploring.
While big huge air mover fans are somewhat nice, smaller compact blowers
definately direct the air better. I also had the chance to see and try
out a pvc pipe tree with branches for 6 or more heads, though it was all
sched-40, sched-20 would work just as well, this was fed by a 1/2 hp
blower and worked awesome. The 2hp blower (little bigger than a milk
crate) really needed a flow divider. If someone brought a blower, could
it be utilized in one of the available spaces or does all electrical
equipment need to union supplied?
Would it be possible to have the headless lounge and possibly just a
fan station / satellite lounge due to the long distances.
-Panzier
There will be one headless lounge in The Westin, and a second one in the Convention Center.
Not sure about how bringing your own blowers will work, I'll let Kage handle that one.
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If it is something you can carry and assemble by yourself, without the use of tools, then it's all right. We have 2 large air movers (which I hope do not get damaged this year) and 2 smaller fans for the room.
Ahh, okay, right the carpet blowers (1600-1800 CFM) are all self contained
and mostly just can be set on a table or on the floor and tilted upwards and
need about 2 cubic feet of space. What's the projected fursuit count? around
300? My memory is terrible so I can't recall what it was last year.
Did the air movers get damaged last year? didn't hear about that. With plenty
of businesses going under, I'll see what I can scare up.
-Panzier
I don't know where that number comes from, but the official number in the fursuiter parade was 353 fursuiters.
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It'd be really awesome if someone had access to one of these, and could bring it: http://www.medgear.org/entry/a-new-cooling-device-to-adjust-body-temperature/
Of course they're pro sports medicine equipment, so I'm sure they're expensive, so we can't expect the con to get one and bring it in, except if a hospital or sports team feels like trading access for a bit of advertising =P
I have a Sharper Image "personal cooling system" which works much the same way, only without the vacuum - it cools your neck by about 1 degree, continuously, which effectively cools your entire body down without feeling cold. Unfortunately, Sharper Image isn't selling it any more, but you can look it up on Amazon - and probably find it on eBay, there are a LOT of people that thought it would feel like an icepack or an air conditioner, and weren't happy with it. :3
Since I'm probably suiting this year, I'll be bringing it - if you see a dragon wandering around with Geordi's visor on his neck, that's me! XD
the most important thing is to drink plenty of water, even if you don't feel thirsty. Make sure the water is room temperature this is very important if you are hot and drink ice water you could pass out from shock. also when going in the headless lounge wait till you cool off before removing parts of your suit this is the same difference you have to give your body time to adjust to the temp change.
well take a look at the cooling system on my website , very very low profile, originally designed for the military. The fan system rests in your lower back with a 6-8 hour runtime per charge
Lionel
Lion of the sun productions
I came from racing...that's where I learned my engineering in costume making. And in racing, they have cooling problems too because you are wearing restrictive fireproof covering that also insulates over your entire body, plus a helmet. A fursuit without the fur in many ways.
Cooling the human body is best done, in these situations, by cooling the blood in the chest. A Coolsuit is used in racing. Its simply a shirt with nylon tubing filled with coolant that goes to a pump and cooler filled with ice. Obviously carrying around a cooler isn't an option. Modifying a shirt to allow you to put those blue ice bags in it will work great to start you off in costume cool. Having a cooler in the fursuit lounge or your room where you can keep spare bags to change out if you plan to marathon will be helpful.
Barring that, you can also cool the neck; though this is risky because you are cooling the blood to the brain (chest is better because its the center of things and radiates the cooling outward.)
Cooling also begins with the costume and what you wear under it. The head should be made to allow air to circulate freely and keep the costume away from your head. I used flannel covered foam "pillows" in my first costume spaced in a way which allowed air to circulate, and now just use foam pads on the head frame. I also cut holes all the way through inside the ears. They're invisible to viewers, but air goes freely through them. I also set up the costume so air doesn't escape into the head from breathing. I usually allow air to come in through the eyes or nose when I breathe in through my nose, and out through the mouth of the costume when I breathe out through my mouth. It takes some practice to get used to this but the last thing you want is to have your head surrounded by hot, moist air from your lungs.
As for under the costume, I despise Underarmour for this. The fact is, Underarmour is designed to keep you WARM, not cool. It feels cool because it contacts your skin, but it insulates. It does wick moisture to an extent, but it is a single layer, not woven like Nomex, and wets the costume. I wear Nomex underwear. It is a loosely woven fabric that is also fire resistant (remember that faux fur is nylon, which is petroleum based, meaning it is fuel when burned!) The loose weave wicks moisture away from your skin but only to the outside of the Nomex. It takes a LOT of sweat to pass to the costume through Nomex.
The downside is that Nomex is expensive. You're looking at about $120 minimum for a set of underwear (the bonus is you get a hood too, which helps keep the sweat out of your eyes and your hair out of the parts inside the head.) I think spending $120-150 to keep a $1000-2000 costume dry (and therefore non-stinky) is a worthwhile investment.
Keeping cool also depends on what you are doing. If you are standing still, not moving, and the air is still, you create what is called a boundary layer on your skin/underwear. This means air does not move, and sweat cannot evaporate, meaning you heat up. This is why standing in front of a fan feels good. But it also means that literally walking around will keep you cooler than sitting or standing still. But you have to move just enough to keep cool and not generate more heat. A gentle stroll does this, so does standing in front of a fan, or outside when there is a breeze.
I have come up with an idea for a portable cooling system that will be integrated into the costume. It will require dry ice or similar to operate however; so it won't be extremely practical for flying to and from furry conventions unless a source of dry ice can be found. However; since I plan to drive to every convention after I'm able to afford things like engineering this cooling system, I'll be bringing dry ice or other coolant (liquid nitrogen?) with me. But that's an example of going to extremes to keep cool. There are a significant number of engineering concerns in a portable long-term cooling system such as regulating temperature. An amateur can't just whip something up otherwise there's significant health risks (spilled NO2 and dry ice can cause serious bodily injury.
Barring a portable cooling system, you just have to learn to take breaks. Drink water, lots of water. Avoid alcohol and caffiene (caffiene is a diuretic, meaning it flushes fluids out of you, meaning it reduces your water.) Alcohol and any kind of drugs should be avoided at all costs. Alcohol displaces water (a hangover is simply dehydration), and drugs can distort your senses, and you need to know when you've gotten too warm.
Anyway, that's my two cents.
"Dead" eh?
Then what is it doing in:
Home » Forums » AC 2010 Forums » Programming » Fursuit Programming
And why is it still active, as in it can be replied to.
Why does everyone have to keep instructing newbies to check the dates to be sure a thread isn't expired, when this site has archives of past year forums, and these threads are still in the 2010 forums? Wouldn't it make more sense to put dead threads in the archives than to keep having to instruct people?
Because, as Giza (the Webmaster) replied in another thread, some information is as valid this year as it was last year. Some information, like setting up a breakfast at the Steel City Diner which is now closed, is not. I'm going to make a suggestion to Giza that threads be locked after six months of inactivity. That won't prevent a new thread from being started.
Also, it looks like the only topics restricted/archived to certain years are Feedback, Lost & Found, and Pictures - everything else apparently can/does roll over year after year. http://www.anthrocon.org/forum
Only thing I can say is come by my booth and try out the sunspot cooling system. If you wear an under-armor or compression shirt with the circulation system you will be amazed as to how well it works.
I can give you testimonials from guys in Iraq and Afghanistan
who wear the system under body armor every day. In fact I just sent 10 units out yesterday.
Come by and try it. Get hot, come by and let me put it on ya. walk around for an hour and see how it changes fursuiting forever. you get 6 - 8 hours of runtime on a single battery charge
Lion of the sun productions
Actually, I've done this quite myself. I've suited for haunted mines and had this problem. The thing I've always done, if you have removable hands you could take off your gloves and either put them in cold water or grab 2 ice cubes and lay them on your wrists where you'd find your heart beat. (Not the back of your wrist.) This does work, takes a little bit of time but you could also after that if you don't mind your gloves a little wet is when you put the ice cubes on your wrist, put your gloves back on to hold them there.
Reason for this being able to cool you off, it travels through your blood in which is all over your body and veins and cools you off.
See if that works for you. ^.^