Electric heated clothing is pretty great. USB heated clothes can only accept 10 watts a piece which isnt alot of but its suprisingly enough to keep you warm. Very energy efficent. They make more powerful electric jackets that run on power tool batteries too which are considerably more powerful. The limit to heated clothing is obviously how big a battery you can carry with you but even a 10 watt usb heated clothing has incredible amounts of CLO units (the scientific unit of measurement for the amount of insulation a particular piece of clothing provides
Layers are super important, thermal underwear (pants and shirt) will go miles in keeping you warm. Same with putting on multiple layers of pants, shirts, and jackets. Certain materials are better than others but at the end of the day every piece of clothing you manage to stack is added insulation regardless of material. Plastic synthetic materials beat most natural plant fibers in insulative property. The only natural fibers that really come close is wool.
Wool stuff is generally very good at keeping you warm but it can have a bit of a texture, requires some care when washing, sheds quite a bit, and it has a certain smell you have to adapt to or try really hard to wash out.
If your job just involves a lot of standing like a traffic signaller then you can probably get away with wearing a double puffy blanket as a cloak which will also help tons. I love my double puffy its great.
If you are dealing with fuck-you levels of cold well below freezing it may be worth getting a snowmobile suit, I’ve heard those are incredibly insulating.
Read this article by lowtechmagazine its full of really good info on keeping yourself warm.
This depends on how cold, and how physical the labor is. The more physical the labor is, the less you’re going to want to wear (in general), because movement and exercise is going to keep you warm.
But, here’s a basic guideline.
First, no cotton. Full stop. Cotton will absorb mater, and then loses it’s ability to keep you warm. Jeans are an absolute non-starter in really cold weather. Leather is okay, but absolutely must be oiled and sealed against water (I’ve been experimenting with a beeswax and neatsfoot oil combination that seems to penetrate pretty well when applied with heat, but that’s more work than most people want to do).
Second, layers. Generally speaking, you want a wicking layer right next to your skin, insulation layer(s), and a waterproof/windproof shell layer over everything. Polypropylene long underwear is the normal technical choice for a wicking layer, and you can get polypro sock liners and glove liners as well. Wool should be your go-to choice for insulation layers; it has the fairly unique property of keeping you warm even when it gets wet, particularly because it’s really hard to get wool ‘wet’ (because wool is hydrophobic). Gore-Tex is gold-standard shell material; it gives you some level of breathability (e.g., allows sweat to evaporate out) while preventing water from getting in and keeping the wind out. With a good shell, you should be able to open vents to cool yourself down if you get too warm (and definitely cool yourself down well before you start feeling sweaty!) Goose down is great at keeping you warm, but does lose it’s loft–and insulating properties–when it gets wet. Depending on what you’re doing, you may want abrasion-resistant panels on your shell layers, as Gore-Tex isn’t as durable as, e.g. 1000D nylon pack cloth.
For boots, the US military ‘Mickey Mouse’ boots are pretty great. They’re several layers of rubber sheet, with wool felt insulation. You want to get them sized up a little so that you can get a liner sock and full cushion wool hiking socks in. All leather ankle-height hiking boots (Sorrel used to be one of the top choices, I’m not so sure any more) with lots of oil/wax based sealants and gaiters is another good choice.
As far as hands go, the same basic principles apply; a lightweight liner, a heavier insulation, and a shell layer. Generally speaking, you want mittens rather than gloves. If you must have gloves, then shooting gloves or lobster claw gloves are better than gloves that separate all of the fingers.
You’ll also want a good scarf–again, wool–and a long hat or balaclava, covered by the hood of your shell layer. The downside to a balaclava over a hat is that if it’s cold enough, your breath will freeze in the balaclava, leaving you with icicles hanging on your face.
This is what I’ve worn when I’ve done multi-day camping trips in the mountains in -20F weather. I’ve made mistakes–like choosing boots with different insulation, which kept my feet wet for three days straight–and the mistakes were painful. Poor footwear choices when bicycling at -20F has meant that I’ve had frostbite in my feet–not severe, thankfully, but incredibly painful as they thawed out.
EDIT As a final note - avoid anything that’s really constricting. Your wicking layer should be against your skin, but not tight. Anything that restrict blood flow is going to be a risk to developing frostbite. Shoes that are comfortable without heavy socks are going to be too tight with them. Depending on what you’re doing, you may need to make compromises. For instance, if you’re doing roofing, you’re probably going to have to get cotton, because that’s what Carhartt is available in, and you probably don’t want to be wearing $500 Gore-Tex shell pants for that.
Finding stuff for roofing in the winter sucks. My boss swears by blacklader pants, they even have kneepad inserts. Wear layers under your pants. Long John’s and or fleece pants will keep you warm. Gloves are also super hard to find, or hard to find ones cheap (and warm) enough you don’t mind destroying.
I follow all of your rules, but let cotton be my top layer sometimes, as it is fairly cut resistant (we do standing seam). As for boots, muck boots seem to be warm enough and give you good traction on a panel/ underlayment.
I also bring hand warmers in case my hands start to get too cold. Also some people use the Milwaukee sweatshirt that is heated/battery powered as a mid layer. It may reduce too many bulky layers.
If it’s really cold I’ll do 3-4 layers. Typically for my legs I’ll do Long John’s, then a pair of sweats, then my jeans.
For my torso I’ll also use a Long John shirt, then a long sleeve sweatshirt, then a hoodie, then a Carhartt jacket. Also, always take a few extra pairs of socks, if you’re feet get wet from sweat, they’ll get very cold as soon as you slow down or take a break.
My regular day was: Feet: boots over heavy socks over lighter socks
Legs: pants over thermals and sometime a layer of sweatpants in between
Main body: hooded canvas coat over heavy sweatshirt over long sleeve shirt over thermal shirt over T-shirt. alternating layers tucked into pant layers
Head: jacket hood over sweatshirt hood over heavy winter hat.
Hands: usually bare for the work I was doing, but when I could, I put them in some fantastic mittens my brother gave me that have been nicknamed “bear vaginas”.
If I got too warm, I could shed upper layers pretty easily to regulate temp, but rarely did I ever need to do more than lose the coat and sweatshirt.
I used to work for a big hardware company and we regularly sold heated jacket that just accepted tool batteries. For example our Milwaukee jackets just accepted the Milwaukee tool batteries. So when you’re on the worksite you just swap out and recharge the batteries as needed with all of the other tool batteries. I got one of those jackets myself once and they are super nice. It could toggle between 3 different power levels depending on what you needed and the battery actually lasted a surprisingly long time.
As far as the rest of your body goes just layer up. Long wool (or goretex if you have the money for it,) socks, long underwear, thermal pants, boots, gloves, ski mask, and maybe an additional hat plus your coat hood. Of course you also want torso layers with the heated jacket but if you’re using one of those then it will be doing most of the heavy lifting as far as keeping you warm goes. If you frequently get cold feet/hands then you can also add glove liners and an extra pair of socks or just toss some instant heat packs in your socks and gloves as needed (they normally last several hours).
Also when it comes to your inner layers avoid cotton like the plague. The saying in boyscouts was always “cotton kills” because even though cotton is insulating, it loses all of its insulating properties the moment it becomes even slightly damp and it will not dry on its own. When it gets wet, wearing cotton is worse than wearing nothing at all. I personally made that mistake once and I was literally better off once I pulled off my socks and just walked around with my bare feet in my boots. When it comes to fabric choice the ideal choice is wool because it’s insulating and getting a little wet doesn’t impact that too much. But if all you have are synthetic fabrics then go with those; they typically don’t insulate as well but they still work better than cotton when they get wet. If you have the money and feel like splurging, goretex is a synthetic fabric that is supposed to be even better than wool; I’ve never gotten the opporitunity to try it out though so I can’t say much there.
But as other have said, layers trap warm air better than 1 thick layer. This is the theory behind double glazed windows. Also why multiple thin blankets warm more than one thick one.
So long Johns, vest/light t, long sleeves T-shirt, sweater, and coat. Strip down or keep on as desired.
I prefer natural fibers because I think they breathe better and keep me better regulated. And as someone that works outside year round in the Midwest, layers are what work. I have found that keeping my chest the warmest, it helps keep the rest of me warm as well.
Just don’t sweat, or if you do, be down to the lowest layer possible. And when you go in, get down to the lowest layer to air out the top layers and to help regulate your body heat.
I drive a forklift so how ever cold it is outside I get an additional 8mph of wind-chill
So today is really going to suck as there’s 15mph winds coming in, so in one direction I’m getting 23 mph worth of wind-chill and the other I’m getting 7
Edit: Also overlapping seams are pretty important as gaps can let air flow in when in motion
Under shirt, underwear, spandex thermal tops and bottoms(think under armor), wool or heated socks, insulated Thorogood boots, t-shirt, heated vest, work pants, work jacket, warm beanie, thinsulate leather or fleece gloves that I may have a hand warmer in.
With that I can work all day in Midwestern winter and compromise very little range of motion. Hand dexterity does take a tanking with the thinsulate gloves but they are warm enough to keep my fingers feeling things.
I often am outside for hours and then inside for hours; taking off the gloves, hat, jacket, and vest keeps me from overheating inside. The real game changer for me was the heated vest and the spandex thermals. I was working outside in the 30s and didn’t need a jacket with the vest on low.
Unfortunately I have frequent periods where I’m not moving around or exerting myself up on scaffolding or lifts where the wind-chill is a dick. It gets into the single digits easily and my gear keeps me comfortable. There are also those days where you start off at 5am in the 20s and then it is in the 50s by the afternoon, so effective layering that can be shed is important.
I prefer to be warm and miserable than cold and miserable.
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