Would painting a tent white help to keep the tent cool in summer?

Question

Tents tend to absorb heat, and by 10am at a summer festival you're getting a rude awakening by the sun heating your tent to oven temperatures...

I'm not a physicist, so I may be wrong, but don't dark colours, like what most tents are made of, absorb heat? And wouldn't a white tent absorb heat? So should I get a tin of emulsion out of the shed and paint my tent white?

Answer 1

The idea that some colours refelct light more than others is a myth.  It doesn't matter what colour your tent is.

Answer 2

If you paint your tent you will stop it "breathing" so then it will be like sleeping inside a plastic bag! I would suggest a tarpaulin or gazebo-type thing that you can put over the tent and shade it.

Answer 3

what are you doing in your tent at 10am, get outside and get drinking

Answer 4

no but I was once at a festival sat in my boiling hot tent when suddenly it came to me...

what keeps heat in.. but also keeps heat out?

the answer is FOIL!

at night the tent would be very warm (as foil blankets are given to those who have been stranded etc..)

and in the daytime the light would reflect off the tent.

so the answer is....... cover your tent in foil! Or buy a couple of those windscreen covers and put it over your tent ! ha ha ha x*x

Answer 5

you'll ruin the fabric of the tent if you do that. just buy a white tent if you want. just open the "door" to your tent, it will cool off.