Tent Heaters

mobile tent heaterIf you’re thinking about adding a tent to your residential or commercial space to create additional areas outside because the weather is too cold, a mobile tent heater is a great way to add heat and comfort where it’s needed, even outdoors.

It isn’t uncommon for businesses to have concerns about adding heat to a covered space outside. While these businesses need to extend comfort to outdoor areas, business owners naturally have concerns about the safety of natural gas and propane heaters.

Whether a resident or commercial business owner, it’s crucial for anyone to follow directions carefully to prevent hazards and accidents. By following the heater’s instructions, community members can enjoy the full benefits of a mobile tent heater.

Understanding Tent Heaters

In an outdoor setting, a mobile tent heater is excellent for delivering heat precisely where you need it. Because tents don’t have any insulation, they present unique challenges. They’re drafty even when people aren’t coming in and out of them. While natural gas or propane is the best fuel source, facilities must know their state and local laws regarding heaters and storing heating fuel.

Some tent heaters have an on and off switch, while others have thermostats regulating them. The incorporation of thermostats maintains a consistent temperature that allows occupants of the tent to remain comfortable. Others have a heat diffuser or duct diffuser on the ducting end to give a polished look inside the tent.

A tent heater’s design is specifically for the following applications:

  • Emergencies and disaster relief
  • Keeping spaces warm during outdoor dining at restaurants
  • Outdoor classrooms that need temporary heating solutions
  • Events or parties during cold weather occasions
  • On covered patios wherever patrons must stand in a waiting line
  • Construction areas where there’s no room for a trailer
  • Temporary outdoor medical treatment areas

Why Facilities Should Use a Mobile Tent Heater

Tent heaters are a must for businesses operating with outdoor spaces in cold-weather states. No matter if it’s an elegant wedding or a site that’s providing medical services, heat is a priority when temperatures drop. Tent heaters provide temporary heating solutions when companies must erect tents in their parking lots, decks, or other outdoor spaces.

Fresh air circulation while simultaneously keeping outdoor spaces warm is a priority for many businesses across the country. While many of these businesses incorporate tents featuring mobile tent heaters in their outdoor spaces, they must also ensure there’s plenty of outdoor air circulating throughout these areas. A fresh air circulator is the first step toward meeting that challenge head-on.

A propane mobile tent heater is among the most popular choice for tent heaters. Because it isn’t safe to keep these heaters under the tent, facilities benefit from ducting options. That way, they can use a portable heater of any size to keep the tent’s occupants warm. A business’s best recourse is to check with their local municipality regarding a heater’s use in outdoor spaces that include tents. Taking that step helps businesses remain compliant while keeping their guests safe and warm.

tent heater diffuser attachment

Companies must use the following guidelines when using tent heaters:

  • Don’t use a mobile tent heater anywhere where people are sleeping.
  • Don’t leave tent heaters unattended.
  • Avoid using these heaters without fresh air circulators.
  • Have fire extinguishers throughout the tent in case of emergencies
  • Don’t set heaters up next to combustible items, including dry leaves, table linens, temporary carpeting, and more.
  • Avoid obstructing the unit’s air intakes or ducts.
  • Evacuate the area if anyone suspects that there’s a fuel leak

Weather is a critical factor that influences a business’s ability to extend its interior spaces to outdoor areas. Incorporating a tent heater into outdoor spaces is an excellent way for companies to change those conditions and create comfortable spaces. For example, when a restaurant must host diners in outdoor areas, they can use tent heaters to ensure patrons show up and can dine without being cold.

How a Mobile Tent Heater Improves Efficiency

Tent heaters essentially create a year-round space that businesses can use the same way as their interior areas. A business’s growth, productivity, and efficiencies are impacted by the weather when moving operations outside. Companies must ensure their workers stay warm when providing services to guests, patrons, and visitors. That on top of maintaining the company’s occupant’s comfort requires tent heaters.

While efficiency might not occur to many business owners, aside from how efficient the unit is, it plays an integral role in many areas of their everyday functions. First, if people coming into the tent are cold, they won’t stay. Second, if workers are cold when working with the tent’s occupants, productivity drops, and they cannot provide services efficiently.

Tents are an effective way of ensuring a business can keep operating when they cannot use indoor areas of their facility. The last thing any business’s workers want to think about is how cold they are during a work shift. Even though tent heaters work when temperatures drop, the recommendation is not to use them when it’s freezing, icy, or snowy. Otherwise, the tent’s vinyl might damage beneath the weight of the ice or snow.

Benefits and Features of Tent Heaters

mobile heater diffuserA mobile tent heater is an economical way of extending a facility’s outdoor entertainment, employee protection, or patient care capabilities. That way, people visiting or working at the facility can enjoy outdoor comfort long after the spring and summer months.

Additional benefits include:

  • Directional heat: Users can create heat where they want it
  • Maneuverability: Two wheels make this heater easy to move from location to location
  • Modular design: Its design means users can put it together, take it apart, and store it easily
  • Safety: The heater and its accessories designs mean facilities receive heat safely and efficiently
  • Tailored control: The thermostat controls means users can adjust the heat and keep the temperature consistent

Because there are many options available for tent heaters, facilities must look at each feature individually to determine which is best for their outdoor spaces. Mobile tent heaters come with everything you need to keep outdoor spaces warm with different BTU ranges and unit sizes.

Additional features include:

  • Thermostatic settings help users monitor and conserve fuel.
  • The heat is fume-free and nearly odorless.
  • When tent space limitations are present, ducting capabilities are available.
  • Works with either natural gas or propane

How a Mobile Tent Heater Benefits the Military

Military personnel who must work in cold weather conditions count on mobile tent heaters. Before deployment, they must assess the weather conditions and determine how many portable heaters they need to accommodate each tent. Because carbon monoxide poisoning or tent fires are a risk military professionals face, they must follow specific safety guidelines, including:

  • Operating every heater per its technical manual
  • Not running heaters at full capacity even in extreme cold weather conditions.
  • Evacuating the tent if the signs of a hazard present themselves

The winter months are miserable enough without having to stay in a cold tent. When military personnel follows the safety guidelines, they stay warm while inside a tent during deployment.

Technical Specifications and Design

As more and more businesses need to expand into outdoor spaces, there’s also a need for keeping those areas warm. Typically, companies turn to in-house engineering teams for guidance regarding how to solve this issue. Architects and designers provide innovative outdoor heating solutions to the athletic, educational, legal, medical, and military industry, and more.

General Technical Specifications:

  • A thermostat keeps temperatures consistent.
  • Available in natural gas or propane
  • Converts from natural gas to propane within minutes
  • Easy to set up and uses numerous duct options

Outdoor Heating Solutions

tent heater accessoriesMany companies countrywide need to heat outdoor spaces for various reasons. Integration of a mobile tent heater into outdoor spaces means creating additional areas for guests, patrons, and patients. The technical specifications for each of these solutions vary by heating capacity, height, weight, and more. Here are a couple of examples:

Model: Tarrison Mobile Tent Heater: #FL-TH85P]

  • Air circulation: 450 CFM (cubic feet per minute)
  • BTU/H: 85,000
  • Dimensions: 31” x 22” x 27”
  • Fuel: Propane
  • Fuel consumption: 3.8 pounds per hour
  • Ignition: Direct spark
  • Operation: With a fresh air circulator or heat diffuser
  • Power requirements: 115V/15 AMP
  • Weight: 122 pounds

Model: Heat Diffuser: #FL-THP-HD85

  • Attaches directly to the heater
  • Powder-coated white finish
  • Quick and easy to install

With expert designers on-staff, companies can incorporate a tent that includes a mobile tent heater within their existing footprint. Implementing these solutions into a business’s outdoor space involves several architectural and design phases.

Architectural and design phases:

  1. Creating design specs after a thorough site evaluation
  2. Presenting plans following CAD drawings
  3. Project integration with existing outdoor spaces
  4. Installation of the tent and mobile tent heater

Incorporate a Natural Gas or Propane Mobile Tent Heater

Southwest Solutions Group® provides companies with innovative design and installation for mobile tent heater systems. Contact one of our experienced design professionals today or call 1-800-803-1083. They’ll help you determine which mobile tent heater is best for your situation.