Solar devices have become very popular amongst campers. Easy to use and operate, these eco-friendly options are portable and cost-effective. When it comes to making your camping adventure comfier, a natural question arises: is there a solar powered tent air conditioner?
Unfortunately, the majority of the standard AC units consume significant amounts of energy inputs, making it unfeasible to have a solar-powered device. However, you can run a small portable AC with solar power with a few adjustments and equipment.
Let’s go through them below.
How to build a solar-powered tent air conditioner?
To build your solar-powered tent air conditioner, you will need the following parts:
- An AC unit with low power consumption
- A battery device able to supply the power required
- Solar panels to recharge your battery
Choose a tent air conditioner option with low power consumption
Most of the options you will find here are personal air coolers that can be run with limited wattage. Window mounted units, and portable ACs usually have a lower threshold of 5000 Btu (approximately 1500W), which will make it very hard to operate via batteries.
Therefore, you should pick options like evapolar evachill, which runs with wattages as low as 5W. Other great alternatives are:
Important note: Most of mini AC options available in the market (if not all) work as evaporative coolers, which means they will perform better in dry environments. If you want to know more about camping evaporative coolers, read this article.
Choose the adequate solar-powered battery
The equipment wattage and use time will tell you what battery size you need.
For example, let’s consider that, on average, your mini portable AC requires 10W per hour (i.e. Evapolar Evalight consumes only 10W per hour).
If you operate the device all night long (let’s say 10 hours), you will need a battery that can provide you with at least 100W (for one night).
So what are the options available in the market? There are many. If you are only operating your mini AC, we suggest choosing a solar-powered power bank.
The Riapow Solar Charger 26800mAh can support Evapolar Evachill operation for approximately 26.8 hours without recharging (1mAh = 1 watt * 1000 / Voltage) and cost less than 50 dollars at the time this article is being written.
The equipment wattage and use time will tell you what battery size you need.
For example, let’s consider that, on average, your mini portable AC requires 10W per hour (i.e. Evapolar Evalight consumes only 10W per hour).
If you operate the device all night long (let’s say 10 hours), you will need a battery that can provide you with at least 100W (for one night).
So what are the options available in the market? There are many.
If you are only operating your mini AC, we suggest choosing a solar-powered power bank. The Riapow Solar Charger 26800mAh can support Evachill operation for approximately 26.8 hours without recharging (1mAh = 1 watt * 1000 / Voltage).
However, if you have more electronic devices and want a multi-purpose battery, there are excellent alternatives in the market, such as:
a) Bluetti Solar Generator 2200W – This model is ideal for large groups of campers going outdoors for a couple of days.
It is probably one of the biggest solar-powered battery devices in the market and comes with 16 ports for all needs (USB, Car Port, AC, 100W PD, and so on). You will not have problems running your mini AC.
The equipment weighs 62lb (28kg) and it is an excellent solution for your camping trip. You can decide whether to get it with or without the solar panels.
b) Jackery Solar Generator 1000 – Jackery is a solar mobile lithium battery ideal for campers. It provides 1000W at 100V, which will be more than sufficient to run your mini cooler.
Jackery also manufactures other models with different wattages (from 240W to 1500W). The table below summarises its charging power according to each battery size.
How a solar-powered battery works?
The operation of a solar-powered battery is straightforward. You only have to open the solar panels and connect them to the battery – that is it – It is already charging – watch the video below for more details.
What are the alternatives to a solar-powered tent air conditioner?
You can use solar-powered camping fans or battery-powered air conditioners.
We have reviewed five solar-powered fan options available in the market to suit your needs. They already come with their solar panel, so you won’t need to buy a battery. The models that we picked as the best in the market are:
- Solar Fan 5W 4 Inch Solar Powered Fan
- Ansee Solar Camping Fan
- BusyPiggy Solar Camping Fan
- ExtremeMist 14″ Misting Fan
- Cowin Solar Fan Sytem
If you want to read a detailed review of each product, read this article. You can also choose a battery-powered ac option, such as IcyBreeze V2 Pro.
Alternatively, you can decide to try a DIY approach. We wrote a step-by-step guide on how to build your DIY camping air conditioner in this article.
FAQ
How to cool my tent without a AC unit?
We suggest checking the following tips:
- Choose the adequate tent fabric.
- Choose the best location to pitch your tent
- Set your tent up at the right time
- Use a reflective blanket.
- Cool your body down
- Watch for tent ventilation.
- Buy a tent for hot weather.
- Don’t use sleeping bags
How hot is too hot for camping?
The exact temperature that the human being can support heavily depends on air humidity levels. The higher the humidity, the more your body will struggle to cope with the heat, given that it will not be able to cool down internal temperature via sweat.
Monitor wet-bulb temperatures and ensure that you do not camp on days above 95 Fahrenheit degrees. If you don’t know what is a wet-bulb temperature, read this article.
Conclusion
Even though we can say that it is not possible to run a large AC via batteries, you can use a mini AC unit with a solar-powered battery to create your tent air conditioner.
Among the small units available in the market, we recommend the following models:
- Evapolar evachill
- Mekodemy Portable AC
- Evapolar Evalight (EV-1500W).
- AIVANT Portable Evaporative Air Conditioner
They will efficiently run from the following solar-powered energy banks:
- Riapow Solar Charger 26800mAh – recommended if you only intend to power your mini AC with this device
- Bluetti Solar Generator 2200W – recommended for a large group of campers that, apart from the AC, will require energy outputs for other devices)
- Jackery Solar Generator 1000 – recommended for a medium-to-large group of campers that, apart from the AC, will require energy outputs for other devices)
Have a comfortable camping trip!
