It can generally go without saying that people don’t really enjoy sleeping in a tent that is far too hot. Whether it is the number of people in the tent or because of the temperature outside, an overheated tent can be incredibly annoying and tough to deal with.
Thankfully, there are more than a few ways that you can cool your tent down during the hotter months of the year, allowing you to rest coolly and comfortably.
However, if you are planning to go completely natural with your camping experience, you might want to decide that you will not be using any electronic devices to cool yourself off with.
While some people will welcome the extra challenge that comes with camping naturally, it certainly limits the options you have to choose from. With that being said, there are still quite a few ways that you can keep yourself and your tent cool, without electricity.
Location Matters
As you might be able to imagine, putting your tent in an area where the sun beats down on it relentlessly is not going to be the best idea for you, or anyone else you are going to be camping with. Simply put, location makes a huge difference in comfort, when it comes to temperatures.
If you want to make sure that you and your tent are staying cool during your camping trip, there are a few things that you are going to want to look for when setting up your tent.
First things first, you will want to make sure that your tent is in an area that is heavily shaded. You should make sure that the shade is not going to be something that goes away when the sun changes position in the sky. A good example would be underneath a heavily wooded area.
Additionally, you will want to try and stay as far away from other campers as you can if you are camping on public campgrounds. The more people that are packed into one confined area, the hotter things are going to get.
When there are enough bodies in a room, the temperature can and will rise. Because of this, you are going to want to stray far away from the crowds if you want to keep yourself cool.
You should also try to make sure that you put up your tent near a body of water. While this won’t inherently do anything for you, it will make it easier to reach a source of cool water. This cool water can be used for a number of things to help you cool down.
It is simply just another part of choosing the right location that you need to think about when you are setting your tent up for the night.
Avoiding the Source of the Problem
Unfortunately, you cannot completely avoid the sun unless you were to camp out underground. However, there are plenty of ways that you can reduce the amount of sunlight that gets to your tent.
Part of this is going to tie into the idea of choosing an optimal location for your tent, and part of this is simply just going to be making sure that you are out of direct sunlight as much as possible.
When you are looking for a good place to set your tent up, you are going to want to try and find an area that gets as little sunlight as possible throughout the day. This would mean that there would be some sort of shade that is not too affected by the position of the sun. The canopy on most trees is an excellent example of this.
Another thing that you will want to look at and pay attention to is where the sun is going to be midday. During dawn and dusk, while the sun is still going to be shining strong, it won’t be beating down directly onto your tent.
If you have to prioritize what time of day you are going to be avoiding the sun, you should try to make it around midday or afternoon, when the sun is at its strongest.
Some methods of keeping your tent cool involve compensating for the fact that you simply cannot completely get away from the sunlight. After all, most of these methods tie into each other one way or another.
Creating a Makeshift Air Conditioner
While you might not be allowed to use electricity on some camping trip, that doesn’t stop people from trying to invent new and different ways to bring the luxuries that we are used to out into the wild.
One of these creations is going to be a makeshift air conditioning unit. There are countless different methods that you can use to create one, but one of the easiest to manage methods is going to be the idea of putting a block of ice into a bucket.
The cold air radiating off the slowly melting ice cube will begin coming out of the holes in the bucket, creating a weak, makeshift air conditioner for all of your summer camping needs.
Do keep in mind that there are many methods to creating a makeshift air conditioner, and that there might be one that is far more suitable for you, depending on what kind of supplies you most often bring camping.
In many ways, a makeshift air conditioner might sound complex and even worrisome at first, but you can rest assured knowing that you will find a way to make your tent considerably more comfortable during the night so that you can sleep in complete peace.
Avoiding the Problem Before it Begins
One of the biggest issues that people tend to have when they are trying to keep their tent cool is that they only realize the problem during the mid-afternoon, when all of the heat has built up and turned the tent into a nice heating room.
If you can avoid the big issue of having a hot tent until it starts to cool down outside, then you can make your life significantly easier.
When people go camping, the first thing that they usually do is put up their tent, which makes plenty of time for the tent to absorb heat and become much, much warmer than is comfortable.
This means that by the time it is time to get into the sleeping bags to go to sleep, the tent is far hotter than it should be, and everyone is unhappy and uncomfortable because of it. Thankfully, there is a very easy solution to this problem.
Rather than simply building your tent first thing because you want to get it out of the way, you should complete your other tasks first and make setting up your tent the last task you do. Chances are this will put you toward dusk when it comes time to set up the tent.
Because there is no way that the tent has been collecting heat, it will be much, much cooler and more comfortable to get inside after a long day of preparations. This is one very easy, very simple solution to avoiding a hot tent issue.
An Unsightly Solution
There is one last thing that you can do to keep your tent as heat-free as possible. You could consider using space blankets, or a very similar material to reflect the heat of the sun before it gets inside the tent.
Something that makes space blankets special is the fact that they are designed to reflect just about any form of heat, and this especially includes heat from the sun.
While it might not look very good to have your tent completely draped in space blankets, you can rest assured knowing that they will reflect just about all the sunlight outward, leaving you with a nice, cool tent to relax in at the end of the day.
Each and every one of these methods is employed in a different manner, although there are some methods that share the same ideas with each other. By doing your research and taking some time looking into the areas you plan to camp in, you can rest assured knowing that you will be able to find a comfortable place to camp without getting cooked by the sun.
Thankfully, most of these methods do not involve purchasing anything special, aside from using space blankets to reflect any and all heat right back out of the area. This means that you won’t have to make any major changes to your lifestyle to camp comfortably when the summer months roll around.
Before you know it, you and your family will be able to enjoy numerous camping trips, no matter just how hot it can get outside.
Ben has a bachelor’s degree in construction engineering. When not constructing or remodeling X-Ray Rooms, Cardiovascular Labs, and Pharmacies, you can find him at home with wife and two daughters. Outside of family, He loves grilling and barbequing on his Big Green Egg and Blackstone Griddle, as well as working on projects around the house.
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