Spending time in the great outdoors is good for the soul, but when the weather heats up you may find yourself looking for a way to air condition your tent. After all, no one wants to spend the night sweating in their tent!
Here are a few approaches to help cool down your tent. Some can be used anywhere, while others are a bit more glamping-esque and require power.
How To Air Condition A Tent!
1. AC Power
One great way to air condition a tent is to have an electric fan mounted to the ceiling of the tent.
A lot of these fans come with cool and warm settings. However, they must be plugged into an electric outlet!
There are also portable AC units that can be connected to a battery or electric outlet power supply if one wants to turn the fan on and off with a switch.
When the fan is on a cool setting, it will be blowing cold air into the tent.
Pros
- Portable
- Can be used with multiple tents
- Requires only a battery or corded electrical outlet
- Dual settings, cool and warm
- Has a digital thermostat to regulate the temperature
- Does not require any installation, plug, and play!
Cons
- Pricey for some people
- Needs a battery and an electrical outlet
- Fans can be loud
2. Ice Water
Potentially the easiest way to air-condition a tent is to cool the air around. This can be done by simply filling a bucket with water, placing it in the shade of a tent, and add in some ice cubes.
The process is simple: just let the sun heat the bucket throughout the day, and then dump out all of the water into another container once it has melted into ice.
Clean out a bucket, add some more ice and water, then wait until it has melted again. Repeat the process until no more ice is left in the bucket, and continue until the air in the tent has cooled down.
Pros
- It is effective as other methods
- Easiest method
- Works best in hot and sunny climates
- Works well with any size of tent and amount of space in the tent
- Its portable
Cons
- Takes time to work all of the ice into water, so plan on cooling down your tent overnight or throughout the day
- Requires a lot of ice; potentially costly
- Fans may prove more effective in cool and windy areas since it will take longer for the air temperature around the tent to get cold
- Takes time to dump out melted ice and refill the bucket with more water
- Not recommended for large tents with many people since it would require more time for ice to melt and get water into the bucket
3. Get A Cooling Tent
The third way to air condition a tent is to buy an air cooler!
These can be purchased at most home improvement stores, and usually comes with a small fan that will blow cold air into the tent. Air coolers are fairly easy to use, although they must be plugged into a power source.
Better yet, these coolers do not require any installation!
Pros
- Pricey for some people.
- No learning curve, plug, and play
- Portable, needs to be carried around
Cons
- Needs electricity
- Most don’t work very well in windy areas
- Potentially loud
4. Wet Blanket
This method is as simple as it sounds! All one needs to do is drape a wet blanket across the top of the tent, or even put it in the tent, and leave it there until it dries out.
It can effectively cool down the air inside a tent by using evaporation. Even though this method is simple, it may take a while to air condition a tent due to evaporation.
Pros
- Just as effective as other methods
- Keeps it cool for a long time because of the evaporation process
- No installation is required
- Portable, just put the wet blanket on top of the tent and let it sit there until it dries out
Cons
- Not recommended for large tents as it may take too long to dry out completely
- Requires more space in the tent so more blankets can be used
- Requires a lot of time to make sure that the wet blanket has dried out before it can be used again
5. Fan
This method uses the power of a fan to cool down an enclosed space. In this case, a tent.
The way I understand it works is that a fan can push out warm air faster than it can pull in cooler air.
So by putting a large fan inside of a tent, then the hot air will get pushed out faster than cooler air can be pulled into the tent, thereby cooling the temperature inside of it.
Pros
- Portable
- Does not require any installation
- Can be used with multiple people in the tent at once
- Special fan is required to cool down the inside of a tent since most fans that are out there right now cannot pull in enough cool air at a high rate
- Has a timer, so it will shut off after a few hours of running
- Dual settings, cool and warm settings
- Can keep the tent cool for hours and hours with a full or new battery
Cons
- Some fans may be too loud for others to sleep
- Some fans will not work outdoors in windy areas since it could blow the tent away
- Potential risk of overheating and melting/burning the fan due to the hot sun shining on it for a long time
- Because it uses a battery and does not plug into anything, it can cost some people more money than they are willing to spend
- Potentially expensive for multiple tents or large tents with many people inside at once
Wrap-up on Cooling a Tent
In conclusion, air conditioning a tent can be easy and efficient.
It may require more equipment, but it is definitely worth the cool feeling that you get on a hot day in the summer months!
I would suggest using the AC method because it is an easier and more efficient way to cool down a tent than all of the others.
