Regardless of whether you spend the night in your tent on the ground or in a roof tent on the car, it can always be uncomfortable in a tent on cold nights. That’s why I’d like to give you a few tips here on how you can survive cold nights warm and comfortable in your tent. There is nothing worse than not being able to sleep at night because it is just too cold. After all, the night should be there to rest and to collect new energy for the next day. In summer it is nice when it gets a little cooler in the evening, but what about in spring or in autumn or winter, the temperatures can drop a lot.
That is why you have to think about the night in your tent and how you can best prepare yourself before you leave. It’s best to take a look at the weather report, see how cold the nights should be, where you plan to go. Accordingly, you also know how to prepare yourself. With good planning, you can make your camper life much easier and more pleasant!
Table of Contents
Why does it get so cold in a tent so quickly?
In contrast to a mobile home, a tent has very thin walls and these walls usually only consist of thin layers of fabric. This also makes it difficult to insulate the tent walls from the cold. This means that the heat generated in the tent, for example through the release of heat by people, can quickly escape to the outside. So you are always dependent on producing new heat inside the tent in order to be able to maintain a certain temperature. If you do not produce any new heat in the tent, the inside of your tent will cool down very quickly and adjust to the outside temperatures.
In the case of a caravan, for example, it takes a little longer for it to cool down, as most caravans have a layer of insulation in the walls. But even a motorhome will eventually cool down and adjust to the outside temperatures. So in a motorhome you also need a heater that allows you to spend a cozy night.
However, there are various ways in which you can also produce heat in a tent and thus spend a cozy night in your tent even when it is cold outside.
Electric heaters for the tent
To keep your tent pleasantly warm, you can hang up a small electric tent heater, for example on the ceiling of the tent, and let it run on a small scale at night. These tent heaters do not consume much electricity either, so you can put a cable in your car and operate these small tent heaters via the 12-volt connection in your car. We have made the experience that these tent heaters are usually sufficient to keep a certain comfortable temperature in the tent, even on cooler nights. Of course, you have to be careful with these heaters. You must not place these heaters on the floor of the tent, as they can easily fall over there or, for example, a blanket could fall on the heater, this can quickly lead to a fire. So please always hang these tent heaters on the tent ceiling where they cannot fall over or there is no danger that they can be covered by something.
If you run the heating from your car’s battery, it can of course be the case that older batteries draw quite a lot of electricity. It also always depends on which tent heater you use and how many watts these heaters need.
If you now want to start your car in the morning, it can happen that the car’s battery is empty and your car no longer starts. This is bad, especially when you are deep in the wild where no one is around to help you. We recommend that you always have a power pack with you when you use a tent heater, with which you can start your car if necessary. You can get these power packs in many hardware stores or car accessory shops in your city. But make sure with these power packs that they have enough power to start a car several times if necessary. You should always focus on quality and don’t skimp on power packs.
Produce electricity for the tent heating yourself
If you do not want to connect the tent heater to the electrical system of your car, there is still the option of generating the electricity for the night yourself.
For example, you can buy a solar panel and connect it to an extra car battery. You can also mount this solar panel on the roof of your car and thus supply the extra battery with electricity during the day and in the evening you can operate the tent heater with this electricity. So you don’t use the battery of your car and you don’t have to worry about an empty battery and you don’t have to worry about your car not starting anymore due to the tent heating.
The disadvantage with the solar panels is of course that they are quite large and you also need an extra car battery and charger. But once you have bought all the parts, you are also independent of the power supply or your car battery. So you should think twice about purchasing such a solar system.
If you have enough space in your car or in the trunk of your car, you can also install the extra battery for the solar unit permanently in the trunk. This has the advantage that you don’t always have to carry the second battery around. You can also permanently install a cable to the roof tent and thus operate the tent heating even more easily.
A good sleeping bag and plenty of blankets
If all of this is too complicated for you or if you are only out and about with your tent in the summer, there is of course the option to buy a sleeping bag that is suitable for low temperatures. You can also get these sleeping bags in many online shops for camping accessories. These special sleeping bags are specially lined and specially insulated against the cold.
You can also pack a few extra blankets to keep you warm at night. But keep in mind that this only works up to a certain temperature.