Ok, yes. Throwing a new years party. Being that we are all quite young fellows we don’t have a house to throw it in, but we do have a large field.
This posses several obvious problems such as the cold weather here in PA, and so fourth. So, I’d like some help braining storming on ways to build a simple yet reasonably warm tent type do-hickie for cheap. That can hold 50+ people. Since we’re all going to be staying the night in this field we need sleeping arrangements as well. Also, does anybody know how much heat a good sized fire gives off? We’ve got several trees worth off wood and pallets, so any way to sort of reflect this?
Fire reflectors are pretty easy to make. If you can get sheet metal, or space blankets, then just build a frame behind where the fire or fires are going and nail the reflector on.
Several smaller fires will be more useful than one larger one, but they will also be more dangerous and more work.
A tent that large is going to be difficult to make. Again, several smaller ones will be easier to put together and heat, but it might break the party up into smaller groups.
Wood burning stoves or chiminea style stoves might be a safer way to heat the place.
Either that, or get hella drunk and huddle for warmth.
While braziers are nice, they might be a bit spendy.
Get hold of a bunch of 44gallon drums and cut some slots down the side.
Keeps the fire all in one place and will probably help stop you from burning down the field?
Thanks for the idea’s fellars. I never thought about the 50 gallon drums or wood stoves.
Anyways, for the shelter, smaller ones would be easy, but we’d like one big party. Right now we’re thinking about building a giant A-frame structure out of 18ft 2x4’s. Then we thought we’d wrap it in 3mil thick plastic sheeting, we’d do each side as to make an air cushion. Should shield the wind and provide some insulation value. Since there will be no tree involved, we don’t need the 18ft height so we’ll probably use plastic to lower the ceiling, giving us less space to heat.
If this works out, I’ll have lots of pictures. Getting people convinced to come to the middle of a freezing field for a new years party is proving to be kind of hard.
People are pretty good heaters producing about 100W each. If you have 50 people you have a 5kW distributed heater or about 17000 BTU/hr. If your structure was airtight and truly double paned it wouldn’t have a lot of mechanical integrity but it would be a phenomenal insulator. In a small enough area that 17000 BTU/hr heater will quickly bring the temperature up to a comfortable level. Then it will become uncomfortable…you hope. That way you can regulate it by mixing cold air from the outside.
Maintaining an airtight seal with a bunch of drunk irrational people who have to pee or vomit frequently will be tricky because they will often want to go outside to do this. This will tend to quickly cool the air you want these same people to be working hard to heat for you. People are a fickle uncooperative bunch and intoxicated people are even more so.
People also produce a lot of moisture and that little double insulated airtight greenhouse of yours will soon begin to condense enough of that moisture on the ceiling to begin to rain. Stay with a sloped ceiling so that moisture will tend to run down the walls rather than drip on the party goers.
Finally, consider the wisdom of placing a group of chemically altered people making less than optimal personal decisions in a potentially stuffy sauna with the great, pitch-dark expanse of sub-freezing open field (and cool refreshing air) just outside the wall.
Oh screw that. Make a 7ft wide fire, about 4ft tall. Get a ton of wood, cook that baby. You’ll be fine. We have parties at my friends’ farm every now and then. Last one was a few weeks ago (in snow and severe wind) Just block any wind with trucks/vans/any vehicles. I’d recommend turning your trucks so people can sit on endgates (works well pretty well, just once it gets later in the night, i advise against attempting to move vehicles)
But yeah, blocking the wind is a huge factor, so thus you can light the fire/other things. It’ll heat up decent enough.
ALSO! I recommend having a sleeping area that is indoors, as i’ve slept in my car in below freezing weather. Not fun.
Yeah, this party is going to be a sort of final hurrah. I’m leaving for the Navy in february, and most of my friends are shipping out this summer, so we want to throw the biggest, craziest party we can. Naturally, being young and no so intelligent, we think it is best we don’t do this in somebodies house.
Thanks for the information harper, it will be double paned and somewhat air tight. I’ve got a little experience having worked on construction sites for the past several years, so the actual tent/building will be fairly well built.
Unibike, there is no option to sleep indoors. Well, I guess people could come and not partake in the drinks then drive home, but is that really new years? There will also be no drinking and driving, the man who is letting us use his field has one rule… that is you had over your keys. And I’m pretty sure he’s not going to want 30-50 intoxicated people vomiting and pissing on his floor.
Also, we want a tent for the girlies. I mean, I wouldn’t mind standing out in the open field with just a fire, but the lady types tend to get cold easy and so we need to accommodate them. We’re trying to make this party have a 1:1 ratio or more favoring the ladies, not sure if it’ll work, but they get top consideration.
I’m going to back out of that one even though in a REALLY small area this will be the case. Let’s see how small. An air space of 3.5" has an R value of one. That means that every square foot of area will lose 1 BTU per hour for every degree Fahrenheit of temperature difference. I thought 17000 BTU/hr would be plenty to support that. But if you want it to be 50 degrees warmer inside than outside it means that every square foot of your structure will lose 50 BTU/hr. That adds up fast and only gives you 340 square feet of wall and ceiling area. That’s about an 8 foot cube. Tight for 50 people.
If you can put a layer of fiberglass batting in between the plastic sheets the R value goes up to about 10 and suddenly you get 3400 square feet of wall and ceiling. This gives you an 8 foot high square structure about 45 feet on a side. Unbuildable as a box but this is where your A-frame comes in. You still get 3400 square feet of wall area.
You mention plastic sheeting, fire and drunken folk…
Consider carefully the likely distances between the three and precautions should things go tits akimbo such as extinguishers, water and sand buckets.
Tee pee’s and yurts can have fires/stoves in the middle relatively safely and are pretty easy to construct.
For sleeping space perhaps tell people to bring tents and decent beeping slags. Keeping a large, communal sleeping space warm through the night could be troublesome.
Alright. Yeah, my friend’s dad has offered to sober cab countless times also. We typically figure out something that works like getting the only sober person to drive, or just do stoner cab (offered by my friends who don’t typically drink).
You could start this party on the street outside the local precinct. When it becomes raucous enough they will happily bring you inside where it’s nice and toasty, out of the elements. They even have facilities in there, though perhaps not with the degree of privacy you might have in mind.
Wow greg, I never thought of that! Not too bad. Then again, I’m not sure it would work. There was an armed robbery 30ft from our local precinct and the robbers got away… when the pigs were sipping coffee and eating donuts.
So it seems like no go. We’d freeze all night.
Ivan, no woods around here. City living, that is why we wanted the farm.
Our local bars assure a good ratio by advertising it as “ladies night” “women drink free!!!” Prizes for best woman, shortest skirt, etc, and a raffle for the women to win an iPhone or mp3 player at midnight. Let them know they’ll meet brave service men who will be risking their lives to keep the women in America safe! Will you have a DJ or a band? Rent a bus to ship in the women, and to take them back to town (leaves at 2 am) if they don’t want to spend the night, driver cannot drink.
Post this on the internet and in women’s bathrooms all over town!
