Introduction: Adding Thermal Insulation to Your Tent

This instructable suggests a way to add thermal insulation to your tent. If you go camping in hot places like Burning Man you'll undoubtably have awoken at 7am bathed in your own sweat. The heat in a tent that is exposed to the morning sun builds up fast, making it hard to sleep in. But since you just went to sleep at 4am, getting at 7am isn't going to work, right?

With a little bit of cash and very little time you can thermally insulate your tent. Using sturdy emergency blankets and some clamps its possible to sandwich an insulating thermal layer between your tent and its rain-fly. This thermal insulation layer will then prevent your tent from heating up due to direct sun exposure.

Step 1: What You'll Need

In order to thermally insulate your tent you will need:

- 2 or more sturdy emergency blankets: "All Weather Emergency Blanket" available from sporting goods/camping stores. These "blankets" are insulating tarps and have nice grommets on them. They are NOT the cheap emergency mylar blankets! The mylar blankets crinkle and tear in the wind! 

These blankets are 5' by 7' and should cost between $10 and $15 -- that's pricey, but they are well worth it!

- 6 or more clamps: You can get these clamps from your local hardware store.  I found that two sizes were really handy: Small green clamps ($.37 at Home Depot) that can pinch one blanket around a tent pole. The larger red ones ($2 also at Home Depot)  that can pinch 2-4 layers of blankets for where blankets will overlap.

How many blankets and clamps you'll need depends on the size of your tent. You can cover a small tent in 2 blankets and maybe 6 clamps. My large tent shown in the pictures will eventually have 4 blankets, 6 large clamps and 8 small clamps. 

I would suggest that you make a guess as to how many clamps and blankets you need and then simply keep your store receipt so you can return any blankets/clamps that you don't end up using.

Step 2: Setup Your Tent

Now to get going! 

Set up your tent when it won't bother anyone (I setup in my parking lot). I didn't stake my tent down, since it wasn't windy -- you'll want to work on a day without much wind. Your life will be much easier!

Important: Don't put the rainfly on your tent! The insulation is supposed to get between your tent and your rainfly.

Step 3: Trial and Error: Lay the Blankets on Your Tent

Now we get to the hand-waving part -- since every tent will be different, it will be up to you to decide how to lay the blankets on your tent. I tried a few different approaches and ended up settling on the solution shown in the pictures.

Three sides of the tent are covered without any large gaps: This way, the emergency blankets will reflect heat away from your tent from three sides. Your tent will still get warmer because of the ambient temperature, but you get better airflow in the tent (prevents the tent from getting stuffy). This works well if you're trying to sleep longer in the morning while the outside temperature is sill reasonably low. It won't work if you want to sleep in the tent during the day.

Alternatively you could use more blankets and wrap the whole tent. You'd have to leave a flap where you can get in and out of the tent. 

Step 4: Using Clamps: Small Clamps Vs Big Clamps

As you try out various ways of laying the blankets on your tent, you'll find that you need to overlap the blankets in various parts. Use the clamps to clamp multiple blankets together onto the tent. In the picture below you can see a corner of my tent where three blankets intersect. In this part its perfect to use a large clamp. The large red clamps can easily clamp 3-4 blankets to the tent. Use smaller clamps to clamp single layers of clamps to the bottom of the tent. 

Step 5: Rotate Clamps and Add Rain Fly

Note: I am going to buy more clamps for my tent -- in this setup there are too many random edges of the blankets that could flap in high winds. Ideally you'll want to have your thermal layer be nice and neat with no gaps.

Once you're happy with the coverage on your tent, rotate the clamps (not shown below) so that when you put the rain-fly on your tent, the clamps won't poke through your rain-fly.

Finally, (also not shown), add the rain-fly for your tent -- this is an important step since the rainfly is the primary means to securing your insulation layer. Without a rain fly, even moderate winds will strip the blankets off the tent. To prevent this and to make the wind pass over/around your tent, add the rain fly.


Step 6: Final Note: Tent Placement

The last thing to consider is the orientation and location of your tent. Some tips:

- When setting up camp, make sure you know where the sun rises.

- If you can find any shade (tree or a vehicle), put your tent where the shade will be in the early morning.

- If you have no shade to work with, make sure to orient any uninsulated sides of your tent away from the morning sun. 

- Sometimes you simply need to guess at how to orient your tent and you're bound to be off a bit. When you wake in the morning, note where your tent is taking direct sun and adjust the blankets or the orientation of your tent so you can sleep longer the next day!

Happy sleeping in an adverse hot weather!