Candle heaters

[straycat]

Made this one to keep my home office warm and quit using an electric space heater when it gets really cold.
Total outlay dollar wise right at $20.00
2 terracotta clay pots bolted together the clay tray to hold 4 small candles,2 concrete bricks to hold the pots up off the candles for airflow.
Generates 220 degrees of radiant heat for 8 hours or so.
Last pic with the thermometer was after about 20 min after lighting the candles.
Pretty efficient little booger.

[Hellbat]

My wife has a ravenous candle habit. She would approve.

[MOSHWITZ]

Cool stuff, I love things like this.
Have a look at http://www.instructables.com/ I'm always picking up cool DIY stuff there.

You said you have 2 pots bolted together, is the inside one smaller? is there an air gap between the sides? can I get a pic from the underside please, I want to make one.

MOSHON
DAVE

[straycat]

Yeah Dave just use a pot one size smaller on the inside.
My bolt was not threaded all the way up so my inside pot hangs down a bit farther than I'd like.
Going to get another bolt so I can fix that. Yes there is air space between the pots.
Check out candle heaters on YT it will show you how to make one.
I'm going to make a few more just just to have them in an emergency.

[dvscool]

that is ridiculously cool.....well. hot....but cool...

[straycat]

I keep the house thermostat around 70 degrees and the office if I close the door has hit 77-80 degrees.
Open the door the room stays 75 and actually warming up the master bedroom a little.
Just a test to see if I can bring down my electric bill in the winter.
Its been pretty cold and used my electric space heater while in this room and my bill last month was $190 so well see if this little gem can bring the cost down without sacrificing comfort.

[MOSHWITZ]

SWEET,, Thanks

MOSHON
DAVE

[straycat]

Your welcome Dave.
When the candles burn out Just drain the hot wax in a mason jar with a new wick and in time you have another candle.
Recycling at its best.LOL

[leftykingv2]

That's awesome Stray! Also very inventive as well as frugal. Heat the room dirt cheap and have a nice smell too.

[Larz]

Neat idea.

If you painted the pots, would it melt off?

[Vass]

Love these things. Stray, one thing to try- open up that hole on the cover pot. The idea behind this design is convection. The top pot should stay fairly reasonably temperatured while the one underneath gets crazy hot.

What you're looking for is convection: air enters from the space between the two pots from the bottom, runs up in between the pot as it heats, and exits hot as hell out the hole. Heat rises as we know so it constantly pulls cool air from the sides and expells it hot up top.

Your heater as it is pumps heat, but if you let it breathe it will pump way more and be much less apt to burn you. You're trapping the heat in the second pot right now and it's radiating. If you let it circulate it will go more efficiently into the air.

So short version- plug the hole in the lower pot, then use something to hold the 2 pots an inch apart on top that leaves the hole in the second pot open. I've seen builds that used a well perforated foil cup left over from those little ikea tea lights.

[straycat]

I suppose I could drill some holes in the bigger pot to let some heat escape straight up.
Or take the washer off and let heat escape around the bolt.
I have seen some that were open on top too using a beer can chicken roaster thing to prop up the inner pot.