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Napping -how to keep the tent cool for napping children?
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Home › Forums › Gear Forums › Gear (General) › Napping -how to keep the tent cool for napping children?
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Jul 21, 2014 at 3:30 pm #1319137
Any parents have a good technique or gear suggestion for how to keep a tent cool enough that it is comfortable for a small child or baby to nap? I can't always put the tent in the shade, and I do put a sleeping bag or quilt on top but it is a bit annoying to fix in p!ace when it is windy. I tried a mylar space blanket but it was pretty high on the fussiness scale to attach.
Jul 21, 2014 at 3:47 pm #2121357Try this:
http://gizmodo.com/fill-this-cooler-with-icy-water-and-it-doubles-as-an-ai-1608449446
….but I'm not packing it in for you!
Jul 21, 2014 at 5:29 pm #2121368Have you tried putting the space blanket in between tent body and fly? This assumes a double wall tent of course. Should be easy to get it set up and once done the fly holds it in place.
Jul 21, 2014 at 5:51 pm #2121372What about a GoLite Chrome Dome Umbrella, inside your shelter & angled to block the sun? It would just depend on whether your shelter is big enough.
They are 8 oz but it is a really great 8 oz!
Jul 21, 2014 at 6:43 pm #2121384You could get a piece of soft Tyvek (1443R) , punch in a grommet on each corner, attach to those a guyline so that you can drape it over the tent and have it secured to the existing corner stakes.
Heavier than the thin safety blankets but quiet and possibly more tear proof.
An umbrella inside will not stop the tent getting hot.Jul 21, 2014 at 7:01 pm #2121387I'm thinking this could be part of the solution. Get the tent wet? Or drape a wet piece of fabric then drape on the tent.
Jul 21, 2014 at 7:10 pm #2121391Get a spray head for your drinking water bottle and spray water around inside and outside tent
Jul 22, 2014 at 12:55 am #2121449My solution is to use tarp build from Reflect-Tex silnylon.
Mine is custom build by TiGoat and it works great.
Jul 22, 2014 at 5:56 am #2121463Does anyone know where one can purchase an reflective coated nylon these days. I know that DIYGearSupply used to carry it but they don't show it any longer. I checked TIGoat after Slavenya's comment and the only fabrics I see they sell are the nobul fabrics. I'd love to get my hands on some for a tarp project. Even if it's not silicone coated, I'd love to know about where I can find it.
Jul 22, 2014 at 6:13 am #2121466Get a Lightheart Tent. Roll up the awnings, presto. Ventilated and cool.
Get a Tyvek Tarptent. Presto, cool in the tent no matter what. Just don't pitch it in anything more than a sprinkle. (Not rain proof, floor becomes a real bathtub.)
I got hot in a hammock under a nylon tarp – not really a way to avoid it.
Jul 22, 2014 at 1:40 pm #2121563Not sure of the weight but these are very popular at dog shows. Just a quick google search, not promoting this actual brand or outlet
http://www.cleanrun.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=564&ParentCat=254
Jul 22, 2014 at 8:24 pm #2121686Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I'll probably try sandwiching a space blanket between the fly and inner tent. If that doesn't work my older daughter will be excited to have a water battle in the tent! Or, I'll have to try and rig up a second tarp over the tent.
How easy is it to work with the aluminized cuben fiber? I read one post here that said the stuff is pretty stiff.
Jul 22, 2014 at 8:43 pm #2121694Mine wouldn't nap during a camping trip even if I drugged them!
Jul 24, 2014 at 5:34 am #2122034been working on this same issue…esp. at 10-11K, there are no trees and sun makes the tent really hot.
I took the mylar space blanket last trip and put it between the tent and fly of our Hilleberg Anjan and it worked, but was a bit fussy and noisy in a breeze, so I need a good way to secure the ends/corners to fix it in place and reduce the flapping/crinkling.
I was thinking of a couple options:
1. reinforce the corners with tape and punch a hole and fix a line to each hole and attach to tent poles
2. get a few plastic paperclips to clip the ends of the spaceblanket to the edges of the flyAnyone else work this out???
Jul 24, 2014 at 7:02 am #2122054Physics and heat conduction would say to put space blanket on the outside. If it's inside, the tent will absorb sunlight, get hot, and transmit heat through conduction inside. Won't matter very much that the space blanket is reflective.
If it's very windy so space blanket doesn't stay in place, then open doors of tent good and it won't matter much that the tent material gets hot, the heat will just be blown away
Jul 24, 2014 at 8:20 am #2122081Just a footnote here on the physics that might be helpful in this situation. The stuff that makes it "hot" is IR length radiation – the right length to jiggle the molecules in your body efficiently. If you create an IR barrier you may run the risk of trapping it in as well. This is what happen in your car on a sunny day. Furthermore if you block the sun, the material you use will eventually heat up itself, and will emit IR, not to mention heat the air. Long story short, don't use a tent for this. Use a tarp, assume it is going to heat up and pitch it as high as you can so that some of heat captured by the tarp will get convected away before it gets to you. The breeze, if any, will help you as well as the tarp to be cool.
So, shading surface as far away from you as possible, and no enclosed spaces. Using a tent is more or a less a guarantee that the inside of the tent is going to eventually get nearly as hot as the surface of the tent. If you are planning naps as part of your family trip, maybe take a specialized awning tarp for this purpose. Pr4obably on of those heavy duty space blankets (or more than one hooked together), the kind with grommets would be ideal for this. Extra weight, but maybe making your family go UL with you is a bit like making your dog go vegetarian. :-)
If you already have natural (high up) shade available then that is about the best you can do from the temperature standpoint. Then just do the minimum extra required for getting the child comfortable.
If you have to use the tent, say, to keep out the dingos, then shade the tent in the same way – high up shade awning shading the tent from a distance.
Jul 24, 2014 at 8:34 am #2122087well Jerry, I understand the physics involved, but you seem to misunderstand what I'm up to (if you are replying to me).
Aside from the crinkling and shifting, my use of the space blanket makes a significant difference in heat build-up inside the tent. Of course it requires good ventilation, but the Anjan is easy for that.
Jul 24, 2014 at 8:39 am #2122089I'm with Jerry on this, minus the wind and noise and other factors outside would be better. But whatever works. probably it is much easier on the inside, and that might be the dominant factor.
However, then the tent become a bit superfluous, except as a scaffold.
Jul 24, 2014 at 9:21 am #2122104I'm not necesarily replying to anyone : )
If there's good ventilation inside, then it won't matter that much that the tent material gets hot from absorbing sunlight. But you need several square feet on two sides for cross ventilation. Just suspending a tarp would be better if you didn't have to worry about bugs.
There's a lot of energy from the sun, mainly in the visible wavelength. White material or slightly better aluminized material will reflect most of it. That's most important.
There's a smaller amount of energy emitted from a hot object, like tent material that gets hot from the sun, mostly in IR wavelength. This is a much smaller effect unless the tent is enclosed, in which case the heat builds up.
If you suspended an absorbing tarp, and then had an aluminized layer under it, you would hardly notice the effect of the aluminized layer.
If you had an enclosed tent, and suspended an aluminized layer under it, you would hardly notice the effect of the aluminized layer – air would heat up underneath the tent material and because of convection would flow around underneath the aluminized layer.
It would be slightly better to suspend an aluminized layer or a white tarp, than a dark tarp, because a darker tarp would get hotter which would radiate a little more heat downwards, but since there's good ventilation, the air temperature wouldn't increase.
One other case – enclosed tent with space blanket or white material on the outside – since it's reflecting the sunlight it won't get hot – doesn't matter that it doesn't have ventilation. This coule be good if you had a tent and there were bugs.
Jul 25, 2014 at 7:35 pm #2122517Yes, space blanket works ok. I use two cut and taped to fit on two sides of my go lite sl5. One side is the door, point the door side north away from the sun to vent as much as possible. The two most sun exposed sides get draped with the space blankets. Makes a big difference. Same principle as sunshades in cars and radiant barriers in roofs.
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