Do You Hear of "Air Condition Tent"?

As we are know, when we are camping, we should take some anti-cold clothes or quilts. Have you ever think of that your tent could be fit with an air conditioner as the above picture? It sits on three bricks in the rear door. But not every one could fit an air conditioner anywhere. There's three things you must consider before installing an air conditioner in your tent:

1. The air conditioner must pull no more than 6 or 7 amps.

2. The extension cord must be rated for 15 amps or more.
3. The extension cord must be rated for outdoor use.

And you should note that the plug is inside the tent to keep it out of rain and the 50 foot extension cord running from the air conditioner to the campsite's electrical outlet pole in the right background.

There is a reason for that. Plug-in electrical connections generate heat. You don't want the tent end of the extension cord to get hot to the touch. Slighty warm is ok; hot is dangerous. Buy a low-amperage air conditioner and a high-amperage extension cord. Tents make dandy bonfires.

The unit, shown in the photo, pulls 5.3 amps. It's a Daewoo Model WM-501, rated 5,150 BTU. I picked it from several different brands because it pulled the least amps. In fact, those units, all in the 5,000 BTU range, pulled from 5.3 to 8+ amps.

5,150 BTUs are more than enough. The tent is a huge 9-man tent, and even on the hottest Delta afternoon it's cool and comfortable inside. In fact, you never have to turn the control knob past "Low Cool." At night, you turn the thermostat just high enough to cycle the compressor every once in a while. To do otherwise is like sleeping inside a refrigerator.

The air conditioned tent could allow you to do things you couldn't do before.

- You can now sleep late in the mornings. The hum of the fan and compressor motors drowns out the sounds of morning birds and insects. Ever noticed that morning birds are happiest when you have a hangover?

- On hot afternoons, you can now use your computer in the tent. Before, you should had to find someone willing to loan me the use of their air conditioned room and their electrical outlets. Now you put a roll-up table in a corner of your tent and use the table like a desk, notebook computer and Zip drive on its top and powered via a regular extension cord.

If you camp somewhere without electrical outlets, a wildlife management area primitive campground, for example, you can't use my air conditioner. But you can use your computer and Zip drive. The Bluesmobile is equipped with a diode-isolated auxiliary battery. You could install it behind the driver's seat because of no room under the hood.