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While camping, hunting, or hiking out in the cold wild, the first thing you should consider is how you will heat your tent.
Heat is essential to your survival in the wild as the chilly weather will hinder your adventures and cause health complications to you[1]!
There are many safe ways to heat your tent without electricity while in the wild. Ranging from the use of candles to stones, you will never need electricity to keep yourself warm!
While most survivalists prefer to load themselves with lots of electrical heating gadgets, some despise them!
You can easily provide adequate heat during the cold winter season with the right precautions and safe methods.
There are many different methods on how to heat your tents safely and properly without electricity during your adventures.
So, if you happen not to like electric heaters and other powered products, this article will be of help when you’re next in the cold wild.
We’ll examine ways on how to ensure that you are provided with maximum heat supply in the outdoors without the use of electricity.
Also, read: Hunting Illustrated
Be Prepared!
Before venturing out in the cold wild, you must be heavily armed with the right materials to ensure that you don’t spend the night shivering.
In this section, we will examine the various survival heating accessories that should be with you when planning an adventure in the wintertime.
Insulated Tents
When embarking on a hunting or hiking trip in winter periods, you should ensure you get an insulated tent to guarantee maximum heat supply within the tent.
Insulated tents, like this one, are double layered so they are able to keep the warm air from your body heat in while keeping the cold air outside, where it belongs.
Once you’ve slept in an insulated tent, you’ll never have to worry about the cold outdoors again!
Warmer Clothes
Warm clothes like jackets, coats, scarves, gloves, or mittens are essential for any winter trip into the woods.
You should ensure you get winter clothes that have multiple layers and are water-resistant to protect yourself from low temperatures as well as losing body heat to dampness.
I’d advise that you invest in a lot of woolen clothing materials as they’ll provide warmth to the body during survival situations.
A lot of hikers I know swear by SmartWool gear but any socks, hats, shirts, etc made with Merino Wool should be fine.
Sleeping Bags
Sleeping bags are essential on your adventure in the chilly wild as you don’t want the cold ground to sap your body heat throughout the night!
They are specially made to keep you warm while you sleep.
The professional design of sleeping bags ensures that your body heat is preserved regardless of the harshness of the cold weather condition.
Sleeping bags come rated for certain temperature ranges (my winter bag can still be comfortable at 0º) so make sure you pack wisely for your specific location and weather!
Camping Blanket
Camping blankets (I like this one) will also come in handy to help combat the cold while in the wild.
You can use a blanket along with a good sleeping bag to keep the ground from stealing your precious body heat as well as make the roughest ground feel like a fluffy, comfy cloud.
Radiant Heating Techniques
You should ensure that you have enough knowledge of heating methods of keeping yourself warm in the cold wild.
There are various heating mechanisms that you must know about when embarking on an adventure like the candle heating method, coals, water bottles, and rocks.
Why Is It Necessary You Heat Up Without Electricity
For survivalists who love embarking on hunting, hiking, and camping adventures in the wintertime, heat supply is essential to the success of the adventure and survival.
There are a lot of electrical heating gadgets that’ll ensure that heat is adequately supplied when faced with harsh freezing conditions.
However, most survivalists prefer their adventures void of electrical methods of heat supply.
Also, if you’re a survivalist on a low budget and with limited resources, you must have practical knowledge of how to keep your tent warm in the cold wild.
Regardless of the category of survivalists that you belong to, you must remain warm and keep a warm bed in the outdoors.
This to prevent possible health complications that will arise if you fail to keep warm in the outdoors like pneumonia, frostbite, and hypothermia.
Keeping warm also ensures that the aim of the adventure is accomplished and you are safe in the outdoors.
This is because when you don’t have enough heat supply, you wouldn’t be able to perform up to full expectations as the cold will continue to hinder performance.
6 Ways To Safely Heat Your Tent Without Electricity
There are a wide variety of options that you can use to ensure adequate heat supply to your tent in the chilly wild.
And with the right materials and practical knowledge of how to use those materials, you’ll heat your tent in no time – and without the need for electricity!
There are different safe ways that you can choose from to warm up your tent while in the wild.
Let’s examine some of them:
1. Candle Heaters
This is the easiest and safest method of supplying heat to your tent without the help of electrical equipment.
It is designed to provide adequate heat that you need inside the tent without posing health threats or compromising your safety!
Candle heaters are compact and do not emit smoke or leave traces of black marks, unlike traditional candles.
You can make use of the traditional candles but should expect a slow rate of heat supply in your tent and a possible health complication!
For a quick addition, let me show you some easy steps to follow on how to make your own candle heater.
For this, you’ll need 4-6 candles, container (fireproof) to hold the candles, mini-sized clay pot and a larger clay pot (with a hole underneath).
- Put the candles in the container.
- Cover the container with the smaller clay pot.
- Light the candles.
- Then you cover all with the larger clay pot so that the trapped heat will come out through the hole.
- Enjoy the warmth!
If you need a more in-depth instructions, check out our guide on making an easy DIY clay pot heater.
Ensure that there is adequate ventilation in the tent to avoid condensation.
2. Heated Rocks
Those rocks that you see around you is another heating material that will keep you warm in chilly weather conditions.
Rocks can retain heat over a longer period when exposed to intense fire[2]. Having heated rocks in your tent will help to combat the cold weather!
It is easy to make the rocks heated to achieve warmth from the rocks but you have to ensure precautions so that you don’t get hurt.
Follow the steps below to get the rocks to help supply adequate heat to your tent:
- Get 3-4 pieces rocks around.
- Gather little pieces of wood and light it up to make a campfire.
- Then you’ll put the rocks into the fire to get heated up for some minutes.
- The rocks will show signs that they are heated enough then you’ll remove them with a strong stick.
- Allow the rocks to cool down for a while because you can’t introduce them to your tent with that intensity of heat.
- You can then bury them under your sleeping bag or litter them in safe areas on the ground to keep the tent warm and cozy for you.
- Be sure you do not set up the campfire beside the tent to prevent burning.
- Be careful (use thick, woolen gloves) when picking up the stones after heating.
- Don’t place the stones in easily flammable areas.
3. Coals
Although coals may be a little complex option when in the wild and without available coals in your emergency survival kit.
However as you would not want to be exposed to the harsh freezing weather condition, you’ll pick this method.
This method is also dangerous if you do not follow certain precautions as you may end up injuring yourself and burning your tent.
Coals are gotten from burnt wood so you can either get some coal in your emergency survival kit when embarking on the adventure or follow these steps to make your “coal heater”
- Gather pieces of wood and allow them to burn during the day while the sun is up.
- By nightfall, you can now gather your coals from the burnt wood.
- Now that you have your coals, you’re good to go.
- Dig up a fire trench and fill with the coals.
- Then you cover the sparkling red coals with soil.
- You can now fix your tent on it and enjoy the heat all night long!
- Be sure that there is enough soil used to cover the coals to prevent the tent from having an outbreak of fire.
- Also, check that the soil is not wet to have a fast and adequate heat supply.
4. Chemical Heat Packs
If you are a survivalist that despises the electrical heating methods, then this chemical heat method will be suitable for you.
With little or no stress, you will enjoy the warmth and comfort of the chemical heat packs like these.
To keep yourself warm inside your tent, you can simply put these heat packs inside your sleeping bag.
To achieve a warm and comfortable sleep, add the heat packs 15 minutes before you go to sleep. Heat packs are safe to use and are nature friendly!
The manifestation of the liquid contents in the heat packs ensures that adequate heat is supplied to the body.
However, this method is not considered to be the safest as the liquid contents cause skin irritation to some and also cause burns if the content leaks.
5. Hot or Boiled Water Bottles
You can also use bottles with hot water in them to keep yourself warm at night.
To achieve adequate heat supply with this method, you will use an old water bottle ( preferably a metal one) and fill up with hot water- as simple as that!
Non-insulated, single wall bottles work best for this. Otherwise, the insulation keeps the warmth inside the bottle rather than sharing it with you.
You’ll then put the water bottle at strategic places in your survival sleeping bag. The hot water in the bottle ensures that you have a warm night.
This is perhaps the easiest of all the ways to keep yourself warm while in the chilly wild.
However, it may not be best suited to use as you’ll need to get a stove and kettle to boil the water and they may not be readily available!
Also, you should be sure that the water is not too hot to avoid skin burns from the bottle when sleeping on it in your sleeping bag.
6. Insulating the Tent
Another of the most effective ways of keeping out the cold is by insulating the tent!
You have to protect yourself against the cold so insulating the tent is the best way to do so.
There are various ways that you can insulate your tent to combat the chilly weather and give you a cozy sleep. Let’s examine 5 of the ways that you can insulate your tent.
Tarp
Might sound odd right? Interestingly, you can make use of the tent’s tarp to insulate your tent.
Just one tarp will ensure that heat is trapped inside and guarantee a warm tent!
To insulate with your tarp, here’s how you will do so:
- Flatten the ground that you want to put your tent on because there is a low tendency for heat to escape when the ground is flat.
- Then you’ll place the tarp under the tent; this implies that you aren’t going to sleep directly on the ground.
- This way, you are not directly on the ground – which ensures that the night is less freezing in the tent!
- Enjoy your warm and cozy sleep!
Rugs and Carpets
This is the easiest method of insulating your tent to ensure maximum heat supply!
In no time you’ll fully insulate your tent by lining the inside of your tent with rugs or carpets. Simply arrange them all around the ground of your tent to keep yourself warm.
As earlier explained, covering the ground ensures that heat does not escape so you should rest assured of adequate heat supply.
Blankets
Of course blankets help to keep you warm from the chilly outdoors but what about the tent’s window and other openings?
While the windows are useful, they also serve as a way for the cold to penetrate the tent!
So, you can use the extra blankets that you’re not going to sleep with to cover the windows and entrances of the tent to drive out that chill and ensure a warm sleep.
Leaves and Brush
The last way to insulate a tent is to cover it in leafy branches or just piles of leaves.
The goal of any insulation is to create an air barrier. This barrier will trap cold air and keep it from getting in your tent.
So rather than just cramming as many leaves or branches as you can against the outside of your tent, try to find the bushiest branches and lay them in overlapping layers against your tent walls.
If you then add a tarp over this, more air will remain trapped in between the leaves and further improve your insulation.
Snow
Depending on your situation, you may be able to insulate your tent with snow.
The idea of using cold snow to keep you warm may seem counterintuitive but humans have been using this technique for centuries.
Snow is actually an excellent insulator because of the natural “fluffy” nature of it[3]. All of that excess air that is trapped and helps keep warm air in as well as block any heat-stealing winds.
Just be sure to not pile the snow on too heavy because your tent might not be able to support it!
An ideal method would be to create a half wall of snow a foot or two high around your tent, then add a couple of dense layers of branches by planting them in your snow wall and leaning them against your tent poles.
You can then lightly pack snow to the branches, which should take the strain of the weight off of your tent walls and disperse it over the frame.
Bottom Line
Adventure enthusiasts that like hunting, camping, and hiking in the winter times will need a source of heat when night falls.
While some people prefer electric means of heating, many do not like the sound of electrical gadgets for heating up!
This article has explicit content on how to heat your tent without the use of electricity.
So regardless of the harshness of the freezing weather condition that you’ll meet outdoors, I hope you’ve learned of ways that you can face it without electrical means.
