Heat an entire room w terra cotta pot, bricks and candles:

[elleng]

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10105006842649378&set=a.656001965028

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Or not.

These clay pot heaters will never generate more heat than a candle without clay pots. Because, well – science. So what’s going on here? Why are so many people convinced these heaters do work? The flowerpot heater does not increase the amount of heat, just its usefulness. Here’s what’s happening.

The candle under the clay pot heats the air rising via convection into the clay pots. That superheated air is immediately trapped in the clay pots. This means the candle heat collects and builds before it can dissipate and mix with the cold air in the room. The trapped hot air heats the cold clay and steel, which begins to act as a larger thermal mass (a.k.a. an object that stores heat (or heat battery)). Once the heater core is warmed up, it begins to radiate heat from the outside surface.

This build-up and radiation make it much easier to “feel” the heat on your skin. Think of how a campfire puts off radiant heat that warms us. In addition to radiating heat, the heater surface can reach a nice hand-warming temp. This means you can wrap your hands around the outer pot and heat them via conduction. Imagine putting your hands around a hot mug of coffee – a similar idea. Note the more candles you use, the shorter amount of time you can keep your hands on the surface.

Lastly – heat from a candle (without clay pots) will go straight up in a thin column to the ceiling – and stays there. This ceiling heat provides zero benefits to the room’s occupants. And it certainly provides no radiant heat.
However, when trapped under an inverted clay pot, every bit of heat from the candle gets absorbed by the clay.
And thus, it allows it to radiate from a location that’s lower vertically in the room (instead of at the ceiling).
So again, it’s a ‘heat battery,’ storing the heat near the floor. Thus, helping more of it stay in a part of the room where it can be more efficient at heating our bodies. So the bottom line is this:

The thermodynamics laws are still valid (as they always will be). But these laws can also miss the point. The laws don’t always do a great job of accounting for the real-world variables such as radiant heat vs convection and floor vs ceiling location. The goal of these heaters is to make a human feel warmer closer to the floor. These candle heaters can do just that....The flowerpot does not increase the amount of heat, just its usefulness.

https://www.skilledsurvival.com/clay-pot-candle-heater/

[Laelth]

3. Nice link and excerpt. Thanks. n/t

-Laelth

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. How ya doing? Warmed up a bit?

[Laelth]

5. 30 plus hours of electricity plus internet. I'm good.

Still no water, and that may take a week or more to restore, but I am not in mortal terror. Thanks for asking.



-Laelth

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. So far so good. Is there still some snow you can melt and boil?

I grew up eating snow, but I suppose it should be boiled.

[Laelth]

9. We've still got plenty of bottled water for drinking.

We just can’t clean anything. I am dying for a shower.



-Laelth

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

10. You could roll naked in the snow, like they do in Finland after a sauna.

Although after being cold for several days that's probably not an attractive option.

[SWBTATTReg]

7. Neat. I wonder if sitting the clay pot in water will also add to the pot/assembly heat absorbing

abilities, thus retaining yet even more heat, release it via the candle heated pot. Of course the clay will soak up some of the water, but I don't know about the full effects.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. Maybe not because the water absorbed by the pot would have to be heated, too,

which would take more energy. But it might be worth an experiment.

[SWBTATTReg]

12. Water has an amazing ability to absorb heat, which is what I was shooting for, the clay

pot would be eventually overheated (I would suspect) and the water would help disburse the heat more evenly (move the heat from the clay into the water)? IMHO.

A neat thing, if doable. Like one poster mentioned, watch for fire hazard, etc. I just hate open flames in an open area, too much of a possibility of causing other issues I suspect.

[mwooldri]

11. Somewhat the principle of a storage heater.

My parents had a multiple-tariff and multiple circuit electrical system. One circuit was controlled by the electricity company and fed power into storage heaters (electric heaters that heated up ceramic bricks, these bricks then released the heat more slowly) and the hot water tank. That circuit was live for about 7-8 hours a day, generally at night but with a top-up in the middle of the day. The other circuit was 24/7 but pricing was based on time of day. If it was really cold the storage heaters also functioned as regular electric convection heaters if the storage bricks depleted their heat. Same with hot water - if a top up of heat was needed it was available.

But with the candles and the terracotta flower pots - sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do I suppose.

[jmbar2]

2. These could be a fire hazard.

The candles melt down to puddles of parafin which emit vapors that pool in the flowerpot. When the heat gets high enough, the vapors ignite into a large flame that can escape the flowerpot.

[dixiegrrrrl]

13. We have a bunch of old fashioned kerosene lamps

The tall glass chimney and base ones.

I did not realize how much heat they threw off till I used several of them
in a loss of power afternoon. The power was off in a summer storm, so the
air was already warm and muggy.
The table area got way too hot.
So, now, they will be a winter table light source, when needed.