As an alternative to insulating shades, bubble wrap provides a pocket of air to prevent cold and heat from moving in and out of your home.
Bubble wraps serve as a good insulator because of its design which has small air pockets. Because the base material for bubble wraps are plastic, it heats up quickly, and so bubble wraps serve as good insulators. Bubble wraps are also best suited for greenhouses.
You can also use bubble wrap and then a towel in the container to keep the ice insulated and less prone to melting. You should also place a lid over the bucket or container, once it is full of ice, to prevent exposure to air and to keep the ice from melting.
For those of you who skipped ahead, welcome back. To summarize, bubble wrap cuts the amount of heat that escapes through your windows by half. If less heat escapes, you need less heat from your furnace. Ergo, bubble wrap saves you money on your heating bill.
While it takes 500 degrees of heat for generic bubble wrap to become flammable and 200 degrees to melt, the product can catch on fire easily and quickly due to the mix of plastic spheres and oxygen. Bubble wrap can also give off irritating vapors that cause breathing problems if inhaled.
On double glazed windows, bubble wrap insulation does have some effect - up to 20% improvement in heat loss. By insulating single glazed window pane with bubblewrap, you can reduce up to 50% of heat loss. It is easy and fun to install, a few minutes per window is more than enough.
Bubble wrap works by increasing the isolative value of the window, making it effective in keeping the heat out in summer and preventing heat loss in winter. "The still layer of air trapped in the bubbles gives a cheap double-glazed-type effect," Ms Edwards said.
Insulating Your Ice Pack With a Towel
You can make your ice pack last longer simply by adding a layer of insulation between the ice pack and the outside air. A towel or small tea towel can often do this job really well.
One of the best ways to keep your ice colder for longer is by chilling your cooler before you place the fresh ice in it. You can do so by adding ice a couple of hours prior or even the day before and allowing the cooler to chill as much as possible.
Styrofoam is the best insulator for preventing ice from melting.
The simplest and easiest way of adding shed insulation is Bubble Wrap. Bubble Wrap can be found in large quantity's at any DIY/Hardware Store and isn't expensive at all. You can even purchase foil backed Bubble Wrap which adds even more insulation. It works by trapping heat due to the air bubbles.
Most brands of foil-faced bubble wrap are only 3/8 inch thick or less, and have an R-value of only 1.0 or 1.1.
Foam packaging is thinner than bubble rolls, which means you'll be able to fit more into your moving box (but don't be tempted to overpack your fragile items!). Foam rolls and pre-cut sheets are ideal for surface protection and cushioning of valuables.
One way of reducing convection is creating air pockets around the jar, for example, by using insulators such as bubble wrap, fabric or wool, which have a lot of air pockets.
Even though bubble wrap was a breakthrough in the packaging industry and became the most well-known form of protective packaging world-wide, it can be rather damaging to the environment with it being made from plastic materials that are not biodegradable.
You can boost the cooling effect by using an aluminum foil to line the interior of a cooler. The foil's surface is reflective, which delays the melting of ice. One sheet of aluminum foil will work as an inside layer before you place the ice inside the cooler. Another alternative for the foil is a towel or bubble wrap.
A vacuum is by far the best known insulator for keeping things cold. Wikipedia gives it an R-value of 14-66 per inch. Compare this to white styrofoam with an R value of 3.6-4.7 and you can see just how incredible a vacuum is at keeping things cold.