any experience with portable AC for tents?

knottie93f96a98e60cf4f2

We are getting married in late June, in our backyard in the afternoon. Our brief ceremony will be under the full shade of some large maple trees and we are planning to set up a large tent for the reception. This will obviously be miserable unless we have some portable ac. Does anyone have any experience as to what works and what does not work in this situation? The closest AC rentals are over an hour away so we've even considered buying 2 units instead of renting. The tent will be 30ft x60ft.

climbingsingle

Are you planning on setting up a tent with walls? Otherwise the AC units won't make much difference. Your guests' comfort should be your top priority, so if you're saying it will be "miserable" outside, you need to come up with another plan. 

knottie93f96a98e60cf4f2

Well of course we would put up walls! Lol. Who would try to AC the outdoors? The local rental place has the double peak tents, solid walls, walls with windows, doors, all that, but only fans, and that just wouldn't do.

I just want to know if we rent or buy a couple portable ac units, if anyone has been to a wedding with an AC'd tent and if it was comforrable or not.

lyndausvi

You need walls.    Since cold air sinks, you end up losing a lot under the tent walls.   

 In general you need about 1 ton of a/c for every 100-150 sq feet to a/c a tent.    A 30x60 is 1800 sq feet.

knottie93f96a98e60cf4f2

lyndausvi said:

You need walls.    Since cold air sinks, you end up losing a lot under the tent walls.   

 In general you need about 1 ton of a/c for every 100-150 sq feet to a/c a tent.    A 30x60 is 1800 sq feet.

Great thank you.

climbingsingle

treehugginbride said:

Well of course we would put up walls! Lol. Who would try to AC the outdoors? The local rental place has the double peak tents, solid walls, walls with windows, doors, all that, but only fans, and that just wouldn't do. I just want to know if we rent or buy a couple portable ac units, if anyone has been to a wedding with an AC'd tent and if it was comforrable or not.

You'd be shocked at the ideas that people come here with. I'd personally going with renting the AC units instead of buying. 

knottie93f96a98e60cf4f2

climbingwife said:

treehugginbride said:

Well of course we would put up walls! Lol. Who would try to AC the outdoors? The local rental place has the double peak tents, solid walls, walls with windows, doors, all that, but only fans, and that just wouldn't do.

I just want to know if we rent or buy a couple portable ac units, if anyone has been to a wedding with an AC'd tent and if it was comforrable or not.

You'd be shocked at the ideas that people come here with. I'd personally going with renting the AC units instead of buying. 

I was just kind of thinking "well duh I'll have walls".. but i forget that common sense is not so common.

There are a few ac rental places within reasonable distance. Gonna be a matter of seeing what they quote vs how much we could buy one and then use in FIs workshop. At least now i know what size i need.

southernbelle0915

I would just call and price it out. Personally, I'd probably rent so that someone else was responsible for set up/tear down and making sure the unit was working. Last thing you want to be doing before/during/after your wedding is messing around with an AC unit.

I went to an August wedding in TX that did this. Hey had their dance floor outdoors because they thought it would cool off and they didn't get a big enough tent. It did not cool off. So the reception was kind of lame with everything separated.

lyndausvi

you also want fans to help ciruclate the air.

knottie93f96a98e60cf4f2

@southernbelle0915 was it at least comfy inside the tent? I think that was poor planning to separate the dancefloor from everything else anyway, especially outside in august.

Our current guest list is looking like 50 plus a few children so right now in looking at seating 65, a small dance floor, small stage, and a buffet table or two. All the tent calculators i can find say I'll need 1000- to 1200 sq ft so my 30x60 might be overkill and may do the 30x45 instead.

@lyndausvi good point. I think the rental place does have fans.

I do reenactment events so i know that being inside of large (or even small) marquee canvas tents with only a slight breeze passing through can be suffocating, even as late in the year as October. (Because AC and fans are sooo not 1499, lol) and i have zero experience with being in an air conditioned tent.
So maybe i should downsize my tent and rent a portable ac with a greater capacity than the tent requires?

I really want a June wedding, so i also want to go above and beyond to make sure it's not miserable and still enjoy our own back yard.
If that's not feasible however, i want to realize that now while i still have time to change our plans.

[Deleted User]

3 years ago exactly, went to a wedding in DC area in an air conditioned tent.  There was a noticable difference in temperature inside and outside.  So, it works.  But I'm pretty sure the A/C was blasting at least overnight to get the temperature down in time for the event.

knottie93f96a98e60cf4f2

Ohhh man. Thanks for the heads up @adk19. I will take this into consideration and ask the rentals place about it.

southernbelle0915

Yes, the temp was fine in the tent. But the rental company handled everything and knew how to keep it at a certain temp (another reason to rent).

I would go with the bigger tent. You can always fill space with a guest book table, a cake table, a gift table, a coffee station, etc. But if you go with a smaller tent, you can't make more space if you need it. KWIM?

knottie93f96a98e60cf4f2

southernbelle0915 said:

Yes, the temp was fine in the tent. But the rental company handled everything and knew how to keep it at a certain temp (another reason to rent).

I would go with the bigger tent. You can always fill space with a guest book table, a cake table, a gift table, a coffee station, etc. But if you go with a smaller tent, you can't make more space if you need it. KWIM?

Yes. Ill keep shopping around and hopefully ill find a rental company that has tents AND ac units. Thanks so much

[Deleted User]

If you buy or rent a tent, make sure it has a door option so people can easily enter or exit the tent. With a tent that size, you'll probably need a minimum of 6 a/c units. If you go for the portable ones, possibly more. We had portable A/C units in our home until we had Central A/C installed and to be honest, they don't provide that much cool air. If you can find a rental company that has tents and a/c units that is the more ideal option. Something else to think about is the logitics of plugging them all in. You may need to rent a generator to power them (which can sometimes be very load). To run enough power from your house for lights & a/c, you may be asking a lot of your home electrical system.

I think it's great that you are concerned about the comfort of your guests and researching this to see if this idea will work.