Shiny ‘Metal’ Fabric Tent Reflects Heat

[leadin]A startup company in Austraila is launching the ultimate desert tent. It has a reflective fly to create a shady oasis in the desert or anywhere outside.[/leadin]

Outback Logic LLC has designed a tent to reflect the sun’s energy and block light, “so it doesn’t overheat and allows sleep without being disturbed by sunlight, even in the daytime,” says the company founder.

It’s called the Siesta 4 tent, and it’s made of a waterproof, lightweight, ultra-reflective fly fabric. The double-wall design reflects UV, visible and infrared, and there are mesh inner walls for bugs.

A metalized fabric fly reflects sunlight to create what the company calls a radiant barrier. It significantly reduces solar gain inside the tent, with interior temps remaining around the same temperature as the outside ambient air.

Tent For Hot Weather

Direct sun on 100-degree days are the intended environment. The designer built this tent after frustration at not being able to get enough sleep at festivals, especially sleeping in after the sun rose.

He notes the fly fabric is also light-blocking, so the tent is very dark inside when the doors are closed. “This means you don’t get woken up at sunrise by light or heat,” he said.

It has 13mm aluminum poles and a floor area of 8’ x 8’ (and each vestibule extends just over 3’). At 18lbs, this isn’t a backpacking tent but made for drive-up car camps.

The Siesta is in the prototype stage now, and a Kickstarter is set to launch later this month. For now you can keep up with Outback Logic LLC on its Facebook page.