Keeping Cool In Extreme Heat - Ideas From Burning Man

When we're out here camping in extreme heat, staying cool is at the top of our list. And here at Burning Man, people have come up with a lot of unique ways to stay cool. There's no better place to talk about camping in extreme heat than Burning Man. Temperatures can soar above 100 degrees in the harsh Black Rock Desert. This annual gathering in Nevada is a temporary metropolis with a creative community of art, self-expression, and most definitely self-reliance. You don't come here to merely survive, you come here to thrive. That's what makes this the ultimate place to experiment and discover different ideas for beating the heat. So I'll start with what we've done. First thing is, we parked the RV north. So in the morning, we get sun on the door side and our built-in awning will give us shade. But by the afternoon, the sun's way over here in the hottest part of the day. We've got tons of shade, as you can see. Keeps it nice and cool. We put Reflectix on the front windshield, which has helped keep it a lot cooler inside because, well, most of the heat comes in through these main windows. We also put Reflectix on the driver's side window, which really helps. We also put Reflectix on the bedroom windows because it's not covered by our built-in awning. Definitely helps knock down that morning light, which helps us sleep better and keeps it cooler. We put up the solar shade on the west side of the RV because it helps knock down most of the sun's rays. So I've done a few things wrong and a few things right here. We sunk rebar down into the playa, or the ground, and put these caps on for safety reasons. This has held really well in the windstorms. I obviously need to go to knot-tying school because this is pretty bad, I'm sure. But it did hold. What didn't hold is the solar shade. When we were sold this stuff, the guy said it was almost impossible to break. But you see, that's not the case. And he also sold us these plastic clips, which were supposed to hold and be unbreakable. But we actually broke through, I think, four of them. So good thing we bought extras. We tied the fabric on to the awning toppers, which works. But it would be better if we could cover more of the RV and have a little bit longer of a cloth. Because the more of the RV you can shade, the cooler it's going to be. So we bought all this stuff last minute in Reno, and I think we were overcharged a little bit. To give you an idea, this 10x20 piece cost us about $100. It definitely helped, and I'll use it in the future. But I've seen some other people that have done better things and a lot less expensive. I cook most of our meals outside in our solar oven, which helps keep all of the heat out of the rig and outside. But a grill or a propane stove would also work. And we have a couple of things we've done here on the inside. Because we have solar, we have two fans that we can pretty much run day and night. One of them is a vent fan, which is temperature sensitive. So we have it set at 76 degrees. And if it gets any hotter than that, it opens itself up to ventilate. And if it's cooler than that, then it closes itself down and shuts itself off. So that's pretty awesome. The other fan we run is this nifty HEPA filter fan. So it actually helps to filter the air, keep the dust down, which is better for my allergies, and cool us off all at the same time. It's pretty nifty. The last thing we did was picked up these very inexpensive air conditioning filters, which we kind of cut and placed up against the window so that it helps block the dust and keep it from coming in. And if you spritz it with water, it actually makes the air coming in feel way cooler. It's kind of like cheap air conditioning. These are probably not the best. They're a little too fine and the mesh is a little too broad. But there are much more expensive ones that are really thick nap, and they would work way better than the ones we got. So next year. So now that you've seen what we've done to stay cool, here are some very neat ideas from our fellow Berners. Sure, you could go the easy route and run a generator 24-7, but that's noisy, smelly, and in no way environmentally friendly. In fact, if you're willing to go completely sands generator, our favorite camp is an entire community dedicated to off-grid living. You'll find a variety of thick nap air filters that trap dust, keep air flowing, and can be cut to size and reused over and over. There's thin, lightweight, and yet even more durable radiant barrier being used all over the place to cut down on heat transfer through windows and housing structures. And there's entire communities covered in solar shade. Most prefer the silver illuminate that blocks 70% of the sun's rays, while the woven fabric allows airflow and doesn't accumulate water. These can be ordered with edges that are sewn with nylon to prevent tears and unraveling, have sturdy metal grommets, and should last for years. Solar is also a big theme around here. Some use solar to not only capture energy, but also double as a shade structure. But one of the most popular uses of that free, sunny energy is creating cooler air. You could choose to use a solar setup and batteries to run a power-hungry AC window unit for one glorious hour a day, like this guy. Or go for the ultimate dry climate cooling solution, evaporative cooling. An evaporative cooler is also known as a swamp cooler, a desert cooler, or a wet air cooler. Here's how it works. A pump circulates water from a container onto a cooling pad, which becomes wet. A fan draws in air from outside the container through the moistened pad, and as the air passes through the pad, it's then cooled by evaporation. Sure, you can buy a portable evaporative cooler, but most burners go the DIY route because it's a lot less expensive. As you can see, they range from something as simple as a bucket to a massive two trash can system. For our viewers, there are evaporative window units, but the best we found is the easy-to-swap-out rooftop units that replace the standard vent fan. If you spend a lot of time in dry, hot climates, this is definitely the best way to go. So there you have it. It can be as easy or as complicated as you want to make it. Yep, there are a lot of cool ways to stay cool. Get it? Staying cool. Anyway, if you know any cool tips or tricks on how to beat the heat, let us know in the comments below and, you know, share your knowledge. Yep, so that's it. See you next time. Yeah, because we all want to be cool.