Many people have been asking about how to keep their SHIFTPOD cool and comfortable even on the hottest days. So, we thought we would recycle an old newsletter and add some updates.
There are three basic ways to keep cool when camping:
1. Shade - Out of direct sun light – Under trees, shade sails, blast shield etc.
2. Air Flow - Creates Wind Chill – Through evaporation and removing hot air from inside.
3. Air Conditioning - Cools the air or more accurately and removes the heat.
4. Swamp Cooler – Adds moisture to so it feels cool when it evaporates – NOT RECOMMENDED
The entire concept of the SHIFTPOD, aside from being the fastest shelter to set up, is that it reflects most of the heat of the sun. This does not mean it will "keep you cold" when it is 105F outside and it is all zipped up, but with good ventilation it will be and feel 10-20 degrees cooler than a normal tent.
The SHIFTPODs are well insulated to keep the heat out and the cool air in or the other way around depending on your need. The silver material reflects most of the UV light that is responsible for thermal conversion to heat but you still need a way to cool the air inside. To move the air you need a fan, to cool the air you need an air conditioner (AC) for best results in hot climates.
The only way to actually "Make it cooler" is to lower the temperature of the air inside of the shelter.
Shade can come from trees, sun-sails (We like Aluminet), carports, or clouds. The problem is this doesn't necessarily reduce the temperature. In some situations, the wind can make trees dangerous, sails and carports fly away and clouds come and go.
Wind also creates wind chill which makes it feel much cooler through evaporation (Think Sweat). You can create airflow (Wind) with a fan (powered by the grid, batteries, or solar) or by leaving the windows open. It also helps if you line up vents with the prevailing winds.
If the wind stops, air conditioners can be a huge luxury. The best way to lower the air temperature is to use and air conditioner (more info on ACs with the how’s and whys below!)
A design feature of the SHIFTPOD is that it seals up really well to keep the dust out in desert environments. This creates a problem when using some AC unit as most units draw air out of the room as they run. This is inefficient under normal conditions as it is constantly drawing warm air into the room it is trying to cool. In a well-sealed SHIFTPOD (or Hexayurt) it will create a vacuum and collapse the walls and roof. This certainly will happen with the less expensive single house units, but it also happens with the $500-700 dual hose units as well. This is because the larger fan in the bottom of the unit will pull "room air" out through the wire channels and gaps that are left unsealed in the manufacturing process. The remedy is simple for anyone that is mechanically inclined. Pull the back cover off, fill the wire channels and fill gaps with spray foam and put the case back on before the foam dries. The whole process takes about 20 minutes and spray foam can be found for $8 a can at any hardware store. You can find our video about this on our youtube channel called SHIFTPOD (it’s called SHIFTPOD A/C MOD)
After all the years doing this, what do you use??? GREAT QUESTION!
OK, so after buying, testing, lifting, even dropping and using all the AC units on the market and even after building our own… we have settled on ONE unit, yes just ONE, as the BEST AC UNIT for the SHIFTPOD! The coolest (pun intended) thing about these AC units is the small amount of power they draw. You can run FIVE of them all day long on one FIRMAN 3200 generator and still have power left for lights and chargers. They can be purchased in 12,000BTU and 10,000 BTU… both are the same size so we always opt for the 12K. They can run on full blast on 360 watts. You could literally run this on solar panels! (No we cannot design a system for you- sorry! Use your radical self reliance :-)
This is the ONLY AC unit we use. Full stop!
