Heating for sleeping

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Here's a couple of shots from our last weekend up in WV. Was around 5-10 degrees outside with the windchill factor. I also had our smaller one hanging in the RTT and only turned it on if I had to. I put a reflective emergency blanket, not the cheap Mylar one, between the support poles and the roof of the tent to help keep the heat from escaping through the fabric, protect the fabric & reflect the heat back down to us. Worked great!!


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FamilyAdventuresOverland said:
98ae467e0c7970460ee600a19cdfe93d.jpg
de5a95b1dd4de91a408086d3d1597d4f.jpg

Here's a couple of shots from our last weekend up in WV. Was around 5-10 degrees outside with the windchill factor. I also had our smaller one hanging in the RTT and only turned it on if I had to. I put a reflective emergency blanket, not the cheap Mylar one, between the support poles and the roof of the tent to help keep the heat from escaping through the fabric, protect the fabric & reflect the heat back down to us. Worked great!!


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Nice man...looks like a cozy toasty setup !
What kind of tent temperature were you maintaining in that weather?
 
Glenn said:
Nice man...looks like a cozy toasty setup !
What kind of tent temperature were you maintaining in that weather?
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The first night we only had our small heater hanging on the tent and had to have it run pretty much all night to stay warm. We were bundled up in sleeping bags with a quilt under us and on top of us. The next morning we went and bought the one pictured and put it in the annex. That night I only had to run the little one 3 times for about 15min to take the chill out of the tent. Not sure what the temps were inside, but can tell you the second night I slept on top of the sleeping bag and quilt. The only other thing we did differently between the two nights was the emergency blanket on the roof. The first night it was folded up and stuffed above the heater only. The second night I unfolded the emergency blanket and covered the ceiling from the center to our heads. This made all of the difference in the world!! The next time I'm thinking about getting 2 more emergency blankets and lining the walls in front of the windows. I'm convinced we could get away with just the small one then. Long winded, but I hope that helps.


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FamilyAdventuresOverland said:
The first night we only had our small heater hanging on the tent and had to have it run pretty much all night to stay warm. We were bundled up in sleeping bags with a quilt under us and on top of us. The next morning we went and bought the one pictured and put it in the annex. That night I only had to run the little one 3 times for about 15min to take the chill out of the tent. Not sure what the temps were inside, but can tell you the second night I slept on top of the sleeping bag and quilt. The only other thing we did differently between the two nights was the emergency blanket on the roof. The first night it was folded up and stuffed above the heater only. The second night I unfolded the emergency blanket and covered the ceiling from the center to our heads. This made all of the difference in the world!! The next time I'm thinking about getting 2 more emergency blankets and lining the walls in front of the windows. I'm convinced we could get away with just the small one then. Long winded, but I hope that helps.


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Awesome! We have the same setup as you pretty much with tent/annex and the same heater. Your second night description is what I envisioned. The emergency blanket is a great idea for the real cold nights. So we have a 20lb tank also. Did you heat and cook on it for a couple of days in camp or just heat? Im wondering how long it would last. I don't think that heater would put a huge hit on the tank for a couple nights. If this weather don't break soon, we will be finding out ourselves in a week...lol.

Thx for the info my friend, looked like a great time :sunglasses:
 
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Glenn said:
Awesome! We have the same setup as you pretty much with tent/annex and the same heater. Your second night description is what I envisioned. The emergency blanket is a great idea for the real cold nights. So we have a 20lb tank also. Did you heat and cook on it for a couple of days in camp or just heat? Im wondering how long it would last. I don't think that heater would put a huge hit on the tank for a couple nights. If this weather don't break soon, we will be finding out ourselves in a week...lol.

Thx for the info my friend, looked like a great time :sunglasses:
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We cooked and used it for heat. The little one we have goes through a 1lbs bottle every 5hrs. The larger one burns a little more. So figure no more than 2lbs of propane per night. That's at least 9-10 nights of heat in a 20lbs bottle. The best part of the annex is its toasty warm when you come down the ladder to change in the morning.


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Does anyone use an electric blanket for warming the bed and tent? I can run one for a while off my goal zero 400. But is that effective? I’ve never used an electric blanket, warm enough?


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We have the Mr buddy heater and I like it. We used it in our big tent (8-10 person size) and it didn't seem to warm it up too much, but I had nothing to direct or keep the heat in the tent, so it all went out the top. I've got some good ideas to keep the heat in the tent now by reading this thread, though.
 
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@NomadJeep15 something that helps a lot if you’re going to be sleeping in your car is getting a handful of those reflective windshield inserts that block out the sun during the summer. You can find them really cheap. Cut those out to fit each window and it will serve two purposes, insulate the vehicle really well and also black out the windows so you have privacy and keeps light out. You can put them all together and roll them up to store. Mine rolls up into about the size of your typical sleeping pad


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805z71overland said:
Does anyone use an electric blanket for warming the bed and tent? I can run one for a while off my goal zero 400. But is that effective? I’ve never used an electric blanket, warm enough?


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My wife has one she got off of amazon it uses a 12 volt socket. Just to warm up her sleeping bag about 20 min before bed. It’s alittle bigger than a throw size.
 
805z71overland said:
Does anyone use an electric blanket for warming the bed and tent? I can run one for a while off my goal zero 400. But is that effective? I’ve never used an electric blanket, warm enough?


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I think anything heating related with battery power will suck down the amps pretty quickly. An electric blanket might not be as bad as an actual heater or hot plate stove type of thing though.
 
Andrew Ahn said:
I think anything heating related with battery power will suck down the amps pretty quickly. An electric blanket might not be as bad as an actual heater or hot plate stove type of thing though.
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I picked up an electric blanket from Macy’s. I’m running on my yeti 400 and it pulls 197w and hour. But I only need 30 mins right before bed to get it all toasty. Works great. Just don’t forget to turn it off.


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805z71overland said:
Is this hose specific to this heating unit? Or is it just the Coleman small bottle propane tread? Looking for something like this for my double burner.


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It should work on anything using the small propane canisters. I just ordered a propane double burner myself with the intention of using the adapter hose.
 
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IMO & for the safety of me & the wife, I purchased the Propex H2000, thermostatically controlled blown air heating system (duct in to the tent) fueled by propane & 12v. for our RTT. No worries of dangerous CO2's or fire from small propane type heater tipping over onto sleeping bags or anything combustible. The H2000 has solid state electronic thermostat (is in the tent) which automatically switches the heating unit on and off to maintain the desired temperature. The unit itself is outside & the heating ducting is in fished inside the tent. When the inside of the tent temperature drops below the selected temperature on the thermostat, the Propex heating system will automatically ignite and run until the inside of the tent reaches the selected temperature again. This works much like the same as your household heating system.

http://store.adventuretrailers.com/copy-of-portable-furnace-heatsource-hs2000/
 
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Ahndrew said:
I think anything heating related with battery power will suck down the amps pretty quickly. An electric blanket might not be as bad as an actual heater or hot plate stove type of thing though.
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I was wondering if there is a solution for a good portable power source that is charged at home - to power a good ole' 12V electric blanket? I was hoping to avoid using an inverter/extra battery and my ceiling in my RTT is too short (40") to run propane heat inside. This is an example of my tent in the picture, so an electric blanket would be ideal - and I don't plan on any arctic expeditions, just some fall and spring outings.
 

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We just got back from our trip to Colorado, Wyoming and South Dakota. Some of the nights got pretty cold when we were at higher elevations. I put a heating pad in bed with us and it was awsome! It drew hardly any current. Turned it on about an hour before we went to bed and it was nice a toasty.
 
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