With a few safety precautions, electric space heaters can be an ideal way to quickly warm your tent. Because these heaters use electricity, it will be necessary to either find a campsite with plugins, or utilize your car’s battery.
To use your car’s battery as an outlet takes a bit of adjustment and a quality power station. Car batteries run on DC current, while space heaters run on AC, so you will need an inverter.
Once the space heater is connected to an inverter like this one you will be heating your tent in no time. Additionally, we’ve had great trips off this power station.
Generally, your car battery can power an electric space heater for roughly 3.5 hours.
However, keep in mind that this can put a lot of stress on your battery, so you ideally don’t want to run the heater for 3.5 hours straight.
As an alternative, electric blankets or heating pads are also an option. As cited aboev, power converters are available that convert your 12V cigarette lighter port to a standard outlet in which you can plug blankets and pads in to. However, unless you’re truck camping, your going to need some extension cords, which pose a serious risk of fire.
Again, electric options can be hard on your car’s battery, so it’s best to use them to warm your tent or blanket before sleeping, then give them a rest.
Finally, for safety’s sake, heaters should not be left on overnight while you’re sleeping. So, be sure to unplug the heater and connections.