Thanks for the link. Another "Bodger" (see my previous post on this topic)! Mind you, he must have a bargain basement version of IKEA where he shops: they aren't £1 for 100 at the IKEA I can get to. However, beware of buying cheap-o tea-lights. Some are very shallow and so don't burn for long: others are made from poor quality wax-like substance, and splutter and fail before they've burned through. So I'd say - invest in the best (tea-lights, that is) and see how it goes. I am already off down the garden to see what earthenware flower-pots I have to hand.
Candles do give off a bit of heat but you can't really heat a room of any size with them. I was able to keep the bathroom above freezing during the last ice storm, but that was about it.
I am doing this! I have to figure out where to find the clay pots at this time of year, tho. In theory, it should work. The cold air in the room should be pushed under the clay pot. Of course, I am a big ole science geek so I'm more about the science behind it than the actual cost savings.
okay. when i got home last night, i set it up. it took about 20 minutes before i could really feel the heat coming out the top and it did raise the temp in the room a degree or so. DH thought i was crazy when he came home and saw it, but once he put his hand over the top and felt the heat, he was surprised that it seemed to kick out a little heat at the top. I have it set up in front of me on the table while i work and there definitely is some heat coming out, but i have 3 windows in this room and 2 arched doorways, so i dont know if it'll bring the temp up in this room. it's an interesting experiment though!
I tried this today. I was wondering why no heat was coming out (it was just as hot as a candle, nothing special) when I realised the outside pot was resting on the base of the inside pot. As my big pot is big it isn't too deep, so I rolled a couple of balls of foil to rest on the base of the small pot so the pots have a gap between them. Heat comes out of it, but I found if you just put one flower pot on there without blocking the hole in the base, more heat is generated. This might not exactly follow the convection heating principles but it seems to work. So I turned my 2 pot heater into 2 heaters.
Just a thought for those up North....this might be something to put in the trunk of a vehicle in a bag to have in an emergency situation especially if you have next to no gas to run the heater ...if you even have a heater in the situation you may find yourself in.
It would be better than nothing and the inside of a vehicle isn't a large area. It would definitely be better than freezing waiting for someone to come.
We keep a large coffee can with 4 wicks in the van for emergency, and have blankets tucked under the seats. They get grimy, but warmth provided is more important in an emergency.
We keep an old parka, hats, gloves, flares, hand warmers, a zero degree sleeping bag, etc, in an oversize duffel in the van. The duffel keeps it all clean. Luckily we've never needed it. We don't carry that stuff in the truck but we don't usually go very far with that in winter, and if the weather is bad we don't go anywhere with it. Husby drives the van to work every day.
I didn't have any clay flowerpots, so I improvised a similar heater by using a tea-light candle in a heavy glass tealight holder, then inverted a metal vegetable steamer (for conducting heat) over it so that it rested on the glass, then put a ceramic cereal bowl upside down on the metal legs of the steamer. It put out some good heat for several hours. I might look for the ceramic pots and the metal rods to make one for my desk.
Like your idea of keeping one in the car Niko...it would definitely heat up the inside of a car.
Thanks to everyone who has tried different methods and let us know how they have worked! I think this is a great idea and will be using it in the future!
We just got a Candlelier which has three candles. They say you can use it to heat a small amount of water or food. It does put out a fair amount of heat but I don't think it would make much of a dent in a car at zero degrees Farenheit. Or warm up much of anything for food or water either. It's great for camping though. Something like that would be safer in a car, IMO. It can be hung up, so might have less chance of being tipped over and setting the inside of the car on fire.
When I was a girl scout leader we would take large cans (commercial food size) and clean them and put a few holes with a can opener around the sides at the bottom of the can. We would then take a small can (tuna fish size) and roll cardboard up inside and pour some type of wax (I forget the name) over it. We would light the small can and place the large can bottom side up over it. When the top would get hot, we would cook breakfast on it. The cans get extremely hot.
It's 10 AM and eighteen below here right now, with an expected high of 4 below. We'll be lucky if it gets that warm. So no candle heaters for us today. We'll be burning copious amounts of expensive propane instead, and being grateful for the three furnaces to do so and the money to pay for it with.
Nah, DC, I know it wouldn't make a dent. We've had some form of real heat on for a couple months already. I agree, a candle heater would have to be in a tiny room, and in a climate where it got chilly, not cold.
I had the kitchen stove burner on under a seven-quart canner most of the afternoon, and that didn't warm up the kitchen. I was hoping, but not really. A candle wouldn't have done anything at all if a big propane burner wouldn't.
Husby got the driveway cleared finally, so that's a relief.
This would make more sense to me if the clay pots were much larger and instead of one candle there would be several underneath. I don't think this little thing would actually heat up more than a "Doll House Size" room. In my house, I have putty on the windows. 2 windows on one wall and one adjacent. I also have plastic on the inside of the shade because I will get fined at my complex for having it where it should be next to the window in front of the shade. It will get chilly if it is anything below 30 degrees. My friend bought me a small room heater for my birthday a couple of weeks ago. It is great, but not looking foward to the electric bill!
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