DIY heating using tea lights and plant pots

mada85

mada85

The Cosmic Force
This could be very useful during a power cut, or to save money for those on a low income. According to the author, one can make a room heater using tealights and plant pots. It's pretty simple to assemble, and the author says it's quite efficient too. He says it costs GBP 0.08 / USD 0.13 per day, which is pretty cheap!

On the UK Daily Mail website you can read an article about it. There's also a diagram of how it works. Link: _http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2492549/Video-reveals-heat-home-using-just-TEALIGHTS-FLOWERPOTS--costs-just-8p-day.html

Here's a video showing how it's assembled.

 
I guess you could use several of them for a bigger room and colder temps. Obviously, handy to know in case the grid/infrastructure goes down or one has very little money.
 
Amazingly simple and cheap, thank you Endymion!

I´ll now give it a try as there is no heating installation in the houses where I live. Maybe it could work as well as a sort of cooking device when power goes off. I think it would be important then to determine the right distance between the big pot and the pan so as to allow the air flowing freely through the hole. A direct exposure of the pan right onto the hole could overheat the pots and break them or even cause an explosion. I also think this should be an outdoor experiment, just in case. Only my guess here.
 
Thanks Endymion, that's clever. Going to try this when it gets real cold, as I usually have to bring in an electric radiator to compensate for the low output of central heating here. 1£ for 100 that's very cheap, I think here it's 3 for 50.

@hesperides: Maybe a rocket stove kind of setup? I'd imagine that flowerpots could take quite a bit of heat before breaking since they're baked?

If the candlelight heating were done in a small isolated room for longer periods, I think some thought be given to airing would be a good idea, for replenishing oxygen and ridding of carbon monoxide.
 
Parallel said:
If the candlelight heating were done in a small isolated room for longer periods, I think some thought be given to airing would be a good idea, for replenishing oxygen and ridding of carbon monoxide.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I thought the same thing. I wonder if one could find tea lights or something similar to use - other kinds of candles, for example - that have less chemicals in the wax.
 
Endymion said:
Parallel said:
If the candlelight heating were done in a small isolated room for longer periods, I think some thought be given to airing would be a good idea, for replenishing oxygen and ridding of carbon monoxide.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I thought the same thing. I wonder if one could find tea lights or something similar to use - other kinds of candles, for example - that have less chemicals in the wax.
Click to expand...

Wax is not the only possible fuel for lights. There is also oil or fat used in lamps together with cotton wicks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_lamp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudlik
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diya_%28light%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butter_lamp
 
@hesperides: Maybe a rocket stove kind of setup? I'd imagine that flowerpots could take quite a bit of heat before breaking since they're baked?
Click to expand...

Interesting how many do-it-yourself highly practical devices that are basic essentials have come to disappear from our daily lives. I like the simplicity of this rocket stove, although since I´m living in a somewhat disert-like area, finding some wood would be very expensive.

My concern about pots breaking arose because of my idea of placing a frying pan directly on the pot, which would obstruct the airflow output and not knowing if this could provoke any overheating in the case of an air flow convection system. Maybe it would only push more heated air towards the bottom of the pot? I don´t know.

If the candlelight heating were done in a small isolated room for longer periods, I think some thought be given to airing would be a good idea, for replenishing oxygen and ridding of carbon monoxide.
Click to expand...

Yesterday night I gave it a short try in a little 9 m squared room and after two hours I couldn´t feel any sensible rising of temperature. The pot got very hot and heat flowing through the upper pot hole wasn´t as hot as I expected. I got too excited with the idea of strongly enhanced heat output thanks to this air flow convection system. Then, as you rightly mentioned parallel, having four candles burning in such a little room already needed airing after a couple of hours, and this without even smoking. Nevertheless, let me know if you get better results on your side.
 
hesperides said:
Yesterday night I gave it a short try in a little 9 m squared room and after two hours I couldn´t feel any sensible rising of temperature. The pot got very hot and heat flowing through the upper pot hole wasn´t as hot as I expected. I got too excited with the idea of strongly enhanced heat output thanks to this air flow convection system. Then, as you rightly mentioned parallel, having four candles burning in such a little room already needed airing after a couple of hours, and this without even smoking. Nevertheless, let me know if you get better results on your side.
Click to expand...

In my opinion this is an inefficient design. He is trying to make a mini rocket stove mass heater, but does not understand the basic principles. His design has little radiant heat. If you want to warm a marshmallow at the top this may work. This is more stove than heater.

This is a good site to understand the basics of a rocket stove mass heater:
_http://www.richsoil.com/rocket-stove-mass-heater.jsp

It would probably work better if you blocked the outer pot top hole, instead of the inner pot top hole. OSIT
I have attached an illustration:
 

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