We used an infrared thermometer to monitor the temperature of the pot. We lit the candles, set the pot on top, and set a timer for ten minutes. This turned out to be foolish, but instructive. So we decided to just use a few extra tealight candles as a base. We needed something to prop up the pot, but didn’t have bricks laying around. We started with a tiny four-inch pot and placed four tealight candles underneath, all on top of a sheet of aluminum foil to protect the countertop. The original goal was to build and test such a heater to see how well it could actually heat. See our guide to the best space heaters for more on determining how many BTUs you need in a heater. Heater Big Buddy Portable Heater can put out 18,000 BTUs. Your 100-square-foot room would need 4,500 BTUs to be heated effectively, which would take over 56 candles. Zone 4 needs 45 BTUs per square foot, so a single candle could effectively heat a room of one foot, nine inches-not even two square feet. Let’s assume your 100-square-foot room is in Zone 4, putting it in the middle of the country. Zone 1, the warmest, covers the tip of Florida, while Zone 8 covers the coldest parts of Alaska. The United States is split into eight climate zones. Let’s assume a 10-by-10 square room, so 100 square feet.Ĭalculating how many BTUs you need per square foot is tricky, because it’s dependent on location. Next, determine the square footage of the room you want to heat. A single candle produces anywhere from 75 to 85 BTU, which we’ll average to 80 for our calculations. Heat is measured in British Thermal Units (BTU). The math behind candle heatĬan a candle heat an entire room? If not, how many candles would it take? Thankfully, we can do some math to find out. You might see other variations of building these heaters, such as sticking a smaller pot in the big pot and adding a metal bolt in the center - but you shouldn’t do that, since those kinds of bolts are often galvanized, and galvanized metal gives off toxic zinc fumes when heated. Example from the video below where the flower pot base holds the candles, with a metal rod holding the whole system together (running vertically through the center) Things don’t just magically get hotter without adding extra inputs.Ī more realistic theory of the terracotta heater’s operation is that it concentrates the heat from the candles into a smaller space instead of just spreading that energy around the room. This is literally impossible, as it violates the first two rules of thermodynamics. One is that the terracotta pot(s) and the optional bolt somehow amplify the heat from the tealight candles. There are a couple of suggested theories for why this should work. The basic method is to use a couple of bricks to elevate a terracotta pot, place a few tealight candles under the pot, and light the candles. There are several ways to make a terracotta heater. So shrink your shelter space instead of expanding your candles.That concentrated heat can be enough to warm small spaces.But that concentrated heat also comes with meaningful dangers.Heat is not “amplified” with these devices, only concentrated.You could boil water or even cook directly on the terracotta this way.It would take nearly 60 candles to effectively heat a 100-square-foot room.Four tealight candles got the exterior of a terracotta pot up to 270 ☏ (132 ☌), while a single candle got it up to 127 ☏ (53 ☌).For preparing ahead of time, get a proper portable space heater or candle lantern instead. So this is a neat hack to know about, but not something you should choose to rely on. The wax itself can even reach its flash point - see below for videos of someone burning down their boat this way. And now you’re creating a potential unstable setup by stacking things on top of each other, etc etc. Open-flame candles are already one of the leading causes of house fires. This can work when you want to heat a “personal” amount of space, such as a tent, under a tarp shelter, in a closet or small bathroom, or in a vehicle that’s stuck overnight in winter.īut that small amount of heat comes with big risks. Instead, by concentrating the heat into a small area using a material like terracotta that can hold and radiate heat, you can get enough warmth in a small area (very small) to keep yourself alive - but you won’t be heating up a normal room in your house. The same amount of heat is coming out of the candles whether there’s a pot above them or not, so it’s not that you’re ‘making the candle hotter.’ But it doesn’t work the way some think it does. Yes, you can get a surprising amount of heat from this setup. So we built a couple of different versions ourselves and measured the results. Around this time of year we often see people share memes about using tealight candles and a terracotta pot to craft a DIY heater. We’ve been testing various prepping memes, like turning oranges into candles and using Doritos to start fires.
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