keeping your shade structure cool

davelam13 · Post by **davelam13** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 4:21 pm

I always put up a monkey hut to stick my tent in and to have a place to chill. While it's a thick silver tarp, when theres no breeze it radiates a lot of heat. I wondered if anyone has played with some sort of coating or spray on the tarp to further reduce the heat factor?

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 9:37 pm

Quilt it with bubble wrap insulation & a second tarp.

motskyroonmatick · Post by **motskyroonmatick** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 10:14 pm

Try hanging a second tarp on the inside so there is several inches of gap between the tarps. This should help by intercepting the radiated heat and allowing it to escape out the ends of the hut. Fabric might work if noise during wind is a concern.

Post by **Elderberry** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 10:24 pm

What about gluing a couple of mylar foil emergency blankets to the under side of the tarp? Before we used a yurt, we lined our tent with mylar and it really helped reflect the sun and kept it cool for an extra couple of hours in the morning.

JK

gyre · Post by **gyre** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 2:41 am

Reflectix?

Post by **Elderberry** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 8:10 am

gyre wrote:Reflectix?

That was like the stuff we used in our tent. But the problem we encountered with it was that it was too thick and rigid to work with compared to the canvas tent material.

There are a lot of much thinner more flexible materials I'm thinking would be easier to glue to canvas.

JK

gyre · Post by **gyre** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 2:20 pm

Reflectix scrim?
One layer?

Sail Man · Post by **Sail Man** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 3:23 pm

jkisha wrote:
gyre wrote:Reflectix?
That was like the stuff we used in our tent. But the problem we encountered with it was that it was too thick and rigid to work with compared to the canvas tent material.

There are a lot of much thinner more flexible materials I'm thinking would be easier to glue to canvas.

JK

The reflectix I saw at Homey D'Pot came in rolls. Silver on one side, like a bubble wrap on the other. While I never went beyond the "I wonder" phase with it, it looked like it would be easy to use. I was considering using it for my coolers.

Post by **Elderberry** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 5:49 pm

Sail Man wrote:
The reflectix I saw at Homey D'Pot came in rolls. Silver on one side, like a bubble wrap on the other. While I never went beyond the "I wonder" phase with it, it looked like it would be easy to use. I was considering using it for my coolers.

That sounds exactly like what we got. I think it's the only material like that HD sells. Anyway, it wasn't flexible enough to actually glue to the tent as we had hoped, so we ended up slipping it between the tent and the rain cover on the side of the tent that was facing east to block the morning sun. It really did make a noticable difference.

Your coolers? You mean lining the inside or making a cover for the outside?

JK

Elorrum · Post by **Elorrum** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 7:05 pm

I like reflectix for the cooler. made a layer inside, and made a boxy cover for outside too, just folded it like wrapping a package, and duct taped the overlap. I then did not open that cooler until Wednesday or Thursday. Frozen 2 liter water bottles, not still entirely frozen, but still the majority was ice. it is stiff, is a bit like metal, but this helps it hold a shape is you need it to. I also made a guitar case overwrap for my tiny travel guitar. like a big envelope. It's expensive though. This is a very sturdy material, doesn't tear easily.

Dork · Post by **Dork** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 7:13 pm

Are you running the tarps all the way to the ground on more than one side? If you can allow for some airflow it will help a lot, even if it's just a couple of feet at the ground. Maybe have a section you can lift up when the sun passes that area.

gyre · Post by **gyre** » Tue Dec 02, 2008 3:16 am

You need very little space at the bottom if you have a larger exhaust opening.
Too large an intake can slow air flow, venturi effect or something.

I have some keg cozies and they are supposed to work great.
If not reflectix, they are a copy.
They are glued together with a clear tacky adhesive and it won't peel.
It does hold a shape well, too well if you're trying to make it do something else.
Some very clever folding involved and they glue all layers.

Sail Man · Post by **Sail Man** » Tue Dec 02, 2008 12:48 pm

jkisha wrote:
Sail Man wrote:
The reflectix I saw at Homey D'Pot came in rolls. Silver on one side, like a bubble wrap on the other. While I never went beyond the "I wonder" phase with it, it looked like it would be easy to use. I was considering using it for my coolers.
That sounds exactly like what we got. I think it's the only material like that HD sells. Anyway, it wasn't flexible enough to actually glue to the tent as we had hoped, so we ended up slipping it between the tent and the rain cover on the side of the tent that was facing east to block the morning sun. It really did make a noticable difference.

Your coolers? You mean lining the inside or making a cover for the outside?

JK

I mean as a cover around the outside. I had a coleman 6 day and an older igloo and coleman. All 3 I used the mylar type space blanket inside to wrap around stuff. I covered with a silver tarp and kept all off the playa with 2x4's. Worked pretty good, the new coleman obviously kept the blocks frozen the longest, I didnt use dry ice. I did use wireless temp monitors. In the morning temps were about 34 degrees inside and would climb maybe 10-12 during the day but overall I was pretty happy. I would like to do away with the tarp and space blanket next yr, and would like to use the reflectix only. Do you have a suggestion for creating the cover?

Post by **Elderberry** » Tue Dec 02, 2008 1:04 pm

Sail Man wrote: I mean as a cover around the outside. I had a coleman 6 day and an older igloo and coleman. All 3 I used the mylar type space blanket inside to wrap around stuff. I covered with a silver tarp and kept all off the playa with 2x4's. Worked pretty good, the new coleman obviously kept the blocks frozen the longest, I didnt use dry ice. I did use wireless temp monitors. In the morning temps were about 34 degrees inside and would climb maybe 10-12 during the day but overall I was pretty happy. I would like to do away with the tarp and space blanket next yr, and would like to use the reflectix only. Do you have a suggestion for creating the cover?

I don't.

We used dry ice in two of our coolers and transferred stuff from the dry ice to the ice coolers as needed. We used the first dry ice cooler first and never opened the second one until later in the week.

We were able to keep ice cream frozen from Friday until Thursday.

But we are thinking about serving 'brown cows' on the playa this year and are investigating any and all ideas that will keep a lot of ice cream frozen for the entire week--actually longer as we usually get there early to help with setup.

Where did you get those wireless temperature monitors?

JK