Tog (unit)

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The tog is a measure of thermal insulance of a unit area, also known as thermal resistance. It is commonly used in the textile industry and often seen quoted on household items such as duvets, sleeping bags and carpet underlay.

F. T. Peirce and W. H. Rees, of the Shirley Institute in Manchester, England developed the tog in 1946 as an easier alternative to the SI unit of m²⋅K/W, writing in their paper The transmission of heat through textile fabrics – part II: ^[1]

The results given in this paper are expressed in terms of watts, °C and metres. So that practical clothing may be described conveniently by a range of small integers, the unit of thermal resistance, to be called the “tog”, is the resistance that will maintain a temperature difference of 0.1°C. with a flux of 1 watt per square metre, or in more practical terms, 10°C. with a flux of 1 watt per square decimetre.

The name derives from the informal word togs for "clothing",^{[citation needed]} which according to the Oxford English Dictionary is a contraction of the 19th century thieves' cant word togeman, cognate with toga, meaning "cloak or loose coat".^[2] The backronym thermal overall grade is also attested by several manuacturers.^{[citation needed]}

The basic unit of insulation coefficient is the R_SI, (1 m²⋅K/W). 1 tog = 0.1 R_SI. There is also a US clothing unit, the clo, equivalent to 0.155 R_SI or 1.55 tog, described in ASTM D-1518.^[3]

A tog is 0.1⋅m²⋅K/W. In other words, the thermal resistance in togs is equal to ten times the temperature difference (in °C) between the two surfaces of a material, when the flow of heat is equal to one watt per square metre.^[1]

British duvets are sold in steps of 1.5 tog from 3.0 tog (summer) to 16.5 tog (extra-warm). The stated values are a minimum; actual values may be up to 3 tog higher. Also, these values assume there is no added duvet cover that can trap air.

Some manufacturers have marketed combined duvet sets consisting of two duvets; one of approximately 4.5 tog and one of approximately 9.0 tog. These can be used individually as summer (4.5 tog) and spring/autumn (9.0 tog). When joined together using press studs around the edges, or Velcro strips across each of the corners, they become a 13.5 tog winter duvet and as such can be made to suit all seasons.

Launched in the 1940s by the Shirley Institute, the Shirley Togmeter is the standard apparatus for rating thermal resistance of textiles, commonly known as the Tog Test. This apparatus, described in BS 4745:2005^[4] measures a sample of textile, either between two metal plates (for underclothing) or between a metal plate and free air (for outer layers). Each industry has its own specifications and methods for measuring thermal properties.

• Clothing insulation

• What's a Tog? at harrykennard.com