Total Heat Loss of Firefighters’ Protective Clothing

We examined the total heat loss, which is the summation of heat loss and evaporation loss, for the firefighters’ protective clothing and the combined clothing samples which were prepared from the firefighters’ protective clothing, the working wear clothing and the commercial T-shirts as determined by a test method specified in ASTM F 1868 part C. We compare the total heat loss, heat loss and evaporation loss obtained from firefighters’ protective clothing and combined clothing samples with those of the commercial T-shirts and a working wear using in a fire station. We confirmed that the total heat loss of firefighters’ protective clothing and combined clothing samples were approximately 2.5 times less and approximately 2.9 times less than those of clothing materials such as T-shirts and working wear clothing, respectively. It was found that very strong correlation existed between total heat loss and evaporation loss. We suggested that the total heat loss determined according to ASTM F 1868 part C could be estimated from the values of evaporation loss.