Would you Choose The Convenience of a Lit, Solar Powered Tent?

• 14th Jan 2016

If you are the sort of person who is unable to detox from your Smart phone, the sort of person who likes technology and struggles to be without it on a camping trip then you will no doubt love the stress-free new options that are rapidly becoming more readily available. You would no doubt love the sort of camping you can enjoy in a tent lit with integral LEDs and solar power available to make your life easier at a festival or out on an adventure.

Big Agnes' mtnGLO® collection of tents offers their solution for tech-addict campers and for those who love to get out and about in the natural world but want a more easy, relaxing and luxurious camping experience. No more fumbling for the torch in the middle of the night, no more dead phone batteries. The idea is that this is camping with all mod cons for tech savvy, modern consumers.

More than that though, this is a collaboration with Goal Zero and offers an environmentally friendly solution for energy while camping. Could this be a step in the right direction, towards more sustainable camping practices? Their water resistant, Solar Ready™ Technology includes a Nomad 7 Solar Panel, fan, lantern, and Flip 20 battery. You can use this system to charge your USB/12V devices or power your mtnGLO lights with power from the sun. All you need is 3 AAA batteries to operate the simple three button controller.

Convenience is one of the main selling points above and beyond the environmental angle. But how do these tents actually fare when it comes to durability and how to they stand up to the wear and tear that inevitably come when a tent undergoes the rigours of camping? According to the Big Agnes website, the LED light strand is integrated into tent seams and is durable and flexible enough to withstand repeated tent pitching and stuffing. But without extensive testing in the field, I am not sure how long you could realistically expect the technology to last.

I can see the appeal of an easy to erect tent with an inbuilt system for those who like convenience and do not like to rough it on their camping holidays but personally, there seems to be a big downside to all this integrated technology. The problem is that the more composite materials are used in a tent and the more complex its make-up, the more difficult it is to mend it or to recycle it at the end of its lifetime. I would argue that we need to make tents simpler, easier to mend and ultimately dispose of, if we are aiming for a truly sustainable and environmentally friendly camping experience.

Solar solutions for power needs may well be a big part of camping in the future, especially in places that see the sun more regularly than we do in the UK, but these do not need to be part of your tent.