'Ere Dylan, someones nicked your heater...

snooks said:
http://inhabitat.com/egloo-heats-your-room-without-electricity-for-10-cents-a-day/

I wonder where they got the idea from.....
Click to expand...

that is pretty funny

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/egloo-candle-powered-heater

they do seem to have adopted the concept of the two flower pots and appear to appreciate how it works

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=899355636742957&set=vb.868915179787003&type=2&theater

I do remember getting an email from a potter saying that he had tried it and thought that he could make something that worked as well and looked much nicer.

he then asked if it was alright with me for him to do that.....

of course, it is on youtube, do what you like, not a novel idea etc etc was my reply

He said that using flower pots was not novel but the hot inner pot and air gap was - as far as he knew. It would be hard to believe that I was the first person to improve the design


however, as others on here will tell you

they do not work, they will kill you, give you cancer, to use one is the first sign of dementia and they create apoplectic outbursts of rightous indignation among cryto scientists all over the planet.

Surely by now everyone knows that only a buffoon would ever consider using such a thing when uber reliable eberspachers are available at little more than the cost of a small car.

D
 
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dylanwinter said:
however, as others on here will tell you

they do not work, they will kill you, give you cancer
Click to expand...

They won't kill you or give you cancer, but they won't do very much to warm a room either :)

Just possibly take the edge off the chill in the limited volume of a small trailer-sailer.

Pete
 
The 4 night light heating & light idea was in a piece written by the late Phil Bolger years ago about cruising a Micro. But not the flowerpot. Given the size of the cabin on a Micro, there must have been beneficial effect.
 
Hi Dylan

I recall going to the Gloucester City show in the late 1950's I think, the show had in addition to the usual show rings many tents for exhibitors and local companies selling home improvements etc. One of the exhibitors was the Government Civil Defence organisation who were advising the public on what to do to survive the USSA targeting us with an A Bomb, there were pictures showing us how to shelter under a table and to listen to the radio for Government instructions. The one thing I remember most was a demo of a "flowerpot heater" powered by candles to provide heat in the event of the mains electricity being interupted !!!!.

I also recall my old school headmaster who was a keen gardener using this flowerpot system to stop his small greenhouse/ glass frame freezing up in the 1960's

Is this where you got the idea from ?

Regards - Cdog
 
seadog30 said:
Hi Dylan

I recall going to the Gloucester City show in the late 1950's I think, the show had in addition to the usual show rings many tents for exhibitors and local companies selling home improvements etc. One of the exhibitors was the Government Civil Defence organisation who were advising the public on what to do to survive the USSA targeting us with an A Bomb, there were pictures showing us how to shelter under a table and to listen to the radio for Government instructions. The one thing I remember most was a demo of a "flowerpot heater" powered by candles to provide heat in the event of the mains electricity being interupted !!!!.

I also recall my old school headmaster who was a keen gardener using this flowerpot system to stop his small greenhouse/ glass frame freezing up in the 1960's

Is this where you got the idea from ?

Regards - Cdog
Click to expand...


I had been using candles to heat the slug

then some-one on here mentioned placing the flower pot on the cooker.

I thought that is bloomin nonsense - stoopid - what the heck does the flower pot do - breaking the law of thermodynamics - honestly people are so idiotic.

I then came across the mod document about heating an Anderson shelter and I thought maybe the boffs have something

that was a flower pot the right way up, a candle in it and a second flower pot on top upside down - lip to lip

I was in my office, it was cold so I lit four tealights in a bread tin

Then I put a flower pot over it

just to prove that it did nothing

and you get a really fast draft from the hole

I could feel it going straight up to the ceiling - my head was warm and my ankles were cold

Then I was walking the dog and came up with the mark 2 with the inner pot - but with the innerone blocked off - faster air flow but cooler air and my ankles were no longer cold

It seems that I had come up with a new twist on an old idea

a simple tweak that moved more air than just a flower pot alone

Does it work?

I think it works the way the box in a convection heater does

I often heat my boat with a 100 watt spot light most of the year so Katie L is small and well insulated - little bigger thana telephone box on its side

so for me, on my boat, in my office it also appears to work for a lot of other people - provided it is a small enough space and they put a pullover on

of course you get the twassocks who will tell you that it did not work in the Canadian house in February

or the blokes on here who tell me how I am going to die, or that I am a deluded buffoon. They do seem to get a head of steam up on the issue.

It has been an interesting ride - 7 million youtube hits, the daily mail, the telegraph, huffington post and literally thousands of blogs and forum posts.

Lots of people appear to have got rather hot under the collar about an old bloke lighting four candles under a pair of cunningly arranged flower pots and claiming to have broken the laws of thermodynamics

I never claimed that you get more heat - just that it moves what is there around more efficiently

and now I see the concept is being toted as an elegant accessory for al fresco dining at $60 a pop

that is marvelous

I am very happy about it

they are trying to raise $30,000 to get the project off the ground

they have got $6,500

https://images.indiegogo.com/file_attachments/1073955/files/20141205095217-pezzi.png?1417801937

https://images.indiegogo.com/file_attachments/1073578/files/20141205071840-032.jpg?1417792720

makes me laugh




D
 
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Dylan

We all know your flower pot heater works, just that it doesn't give off enough energy to make a real difference to heat anything other than a small space and, even then, only by a few degrees.

At the end of the day, all your pots are doing is temporarily storing heat and then optimising the way in which the heat it distributed - they don't create heat per say, only the candles can do that.

I guess most candles produce a similar amount of energy (big or small) unless they have a really big wick that allows them to produce a big flame. So, I found a website where someone calculated the energy given off by a candle (http://protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2013/11/05/candle-mass-and-candle-power/).

They calculated that a single candle produces energy at a rate of about 75 Watt, with around 60% of that (45 Watt) as heat. I suspect that the real value is somewhat higher as it would be very difficult not to "lose" some of the heat energy without sophisticated equipment. So, call it 60 Watt per candle.

So, your 4 candle system produces around 250 Watt - about one-quarter of the output of a fan heater on low power, but more than many tubular heaters. So, not bad. But, personally, I'll be sticking to my fan heater or Webasto. :)
 
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dylanwinter said:
They have raised $10,000

blimey

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/egloo-candle-powered-heater
Click to expand...

Not the only one to jump on the bandwagon http://www.thegoodsurvivalist.com/new-diy-flower-pot-heater-that-doubles-as-a-piece-of-art-this-works-great-and-costs-just-4-cents-an-hour-to-run1233/

Hardly a new idea though, it came up on the Drascombe Forum many years ago and is apparently something Dutch small boat owners have been doing for years for a bit of warmth. You can get a stove heater from towsure http://www.towsure.com/product/Mini_Heater_Attachment_for_Portable_Stove but the nine squids will buy a lot of terracotta pots.

The Egloo ones look quite swish I thought.
 
aslabend said:
Not the only one to jump on the bandwagon http://www.thegoodsurvivalist.com/new-diy-flower-pot-heater-that-doubles-as-a-piece-of-art-this-works-great-and-costs-just-4-cents-an-hour-to-run1233/

Hardly a new idea though, it came up on the Drascombe Forum many years ago and is apparently something Dutch small boat owners have been doing for years for a bit of warmth. You can get a stove heater from towsure http://www.towsure.com/product/Mini_Heater_Attachment_for_Portable_Stove but the nine squids will buy a lot of terracotta pots.

The Egloo ones look quite swish I thought.
Click to expand...


the one you link to has bolts through it which stop if from working quite so well

the KTL forkandle is entirely different and that i9s the same idea as the Italian design

D
 
This reminds me of something we had when I was a kid. A bed warmer made from 2 halves of steel land mine cases which my father had bought just after the war at some silly price, it did work well for localised heat. I can still remember his face when it packed up and he unscrewed the 2 halves, it just contained a light bulb. Belling later produced them in the 60s. http://www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk/ems-be570
 
A response to the nay-sayers

"They won't kill you or give you cancer, but they won't do very much to warm a room either. Just possibly take the edge off the chill in the limited volume of a small trailer-sailer."

Due to PPP leading to PPP, plus a dash of bad luck to boot, we found ourselves about a month ago in Norfolk Virginia, in a 35' yacht that's set-up for Mediterranean/Caribbean sailing. A month ago was when the jet-stream got diverted due to some Japanese weather system hitting Alaska and the north and east of the USA (perhaps the south and west too?) got some unseasonably cold weather - we were snowed on twice and had ice on the inside of the windows for several mornings in succession; all in all, it was not a good time to be trying to sail through Virginia & North Carolina.

Whilst never having seen Dylan's original thread/post, I did around the same time, come across assorted comments/references/p1ss-takes about it and when I Googled 'Plant-Pot Heater' I was duly directed to Dylan's U-Tube video; I watched it and along with the rest of you detractors, I immediately thought: What a load of ball-hooks. The main difference between myself and the rest of the detractors/nay-sayers however, was that I wasn't commenting from the comfort of my centrally-heated house in the Home-Counties, but freezing my nuts off in Great Bridge, East Virginia; with a hardware store/garden-centre only five minutes walk away and with no other cost effective, compact, options immediately to hand, I was desperate enough to give it a lash.

I've no doubt that the more fair-minded detractors might have gone so far as to test Dylan's concept by setting one up and testing its performance, but I suspect that even these experiments/tests were done the ambient-temperature of your centrally heated kitchen or at best/worst the unheated garage? I know from family e-mails that in early/mid November the UK temperatures were quite mild and in those conditions, I don't doubt that your results were disappointing. Our own tests were done in the saloon of a 35' sail-boat, with cabin temperatures @ >8-degrees and with two 'three-candle' pot-heaters going (Bill & Ben), we consistently got the temperature up to 16-17-degrees C; when the temperature dropped to sub-zero, we fired-up Little-Weed too and still managed 14/15C. I accept that this still isn't particularly 'warm' and might well be considered as being little more than taking the 'edge off the chill', but when you're sitting in that 'chill', for real, with no gas/oil-fired central heating to switch-on, you really do appreciate that 'edge' having been taken away.

So, thank you Dylan; we've used your idea, appreciated it greatly and whilst I still can't understand how it works, it does indeed work!
 
BobnLesley said:
"They won't kill you or give you cancer, but they won't do very much to warm a room either. Just possibly take the edge off the chill in the limited volume of a small trailer-sailer."

Due to PPP leading to PPP, plus a dash of bad luck to boot, we found ourselves about a month ago in Norfolk Virginia, in a 35' yacht that's set-up for Mediterranean/Caribbean sailing. A month ago was when the jet-stream got diverted due to some Japanese weather system hitting Alaska and the north and east of the USA (perhaps the south and west too?) got some unseasonably cold weather - we were snowed on twice and had ice on the inside of the windows for several mornings in succession; all in all, it was not a good time to be trying to sail through Virginia & North Carolina.

Whilst never having seen Dylan's original thread/post, I did around the same time, come across assorted comments/references/p1ss-takes about it and when I Googled 'Plant-Pot Heater' I was duly directed to Dylan's U-Tube video; I watched it and along with the rest of you detractors, I immediately thought: What a load of ball-hooks. The main difference between myself and the rest of the detractors/nay-sayers however, was that I wasn't commenting from the comfort of my centrally-heated house in the Home-Counties, but freezing my nuts off in Great Bridge, East Virginia; with a hardware store/garden-centre only five minutes walk away and with no other cost effective, compact, options immediately to hand, I was desperate enough to give it a lash.

I've no doubt that the more fair-minded detractors might have gone so far as to test Dylan's concept by setting one up and testing its performance, but I suspect that even these experiments/tests were done the ambient-temperature of your centrally heated kitchen or at best/worst the unheated garage? I know from family e-mails that in early/mid November the UK temperatures were quite mild and in those conditions, I don't doubt that your results were disappointing. Our own tests were done in the saloon of a 35' sail-boat, with cabin temperatures @ >8-degrees and with two 'three-candle' pot-heaters going (Bill & Ben), we consistently got the temperature up to 16-17-degrees C; when the temperature dropped to sub-zero, we fired-up Little-Weed too and still managed 14/15C. I accept that this still isn't particularly 'warm' and might well be considered as being little more than taking the 'edge off the chill', but when you're sitting in that 'chill', for real, with no gas/oil-fired central heating to switch-on, you really do appreciate that 'edge' having been taken away.

So, thank you Dylan; we've used your idea, appreciated it greatly and whilst I still can't understand how it works, it does indeed work!
Click to expand...

bless you dude

but you just imagined that it worked

us scientists know that it does nothing at all and that winter bloke is a buffoon

D
 
BobnLesley said:
"They won't kill you or give you cancer, but they won't do very much to warm a room either. Just possibly take the edge off the chill in the limited volume of a small trailer-sailer."

Due to PPP leading to PPP, plus a dash of bad luck to boot, we found ourselves about a month ago in Norfolk Virginia, in a 35' yacht that's set-up for Mediterranean/Caribbean sailing. A month ago was when the jet-stream got diverted due to some Japanese weather system hitting Alaska and the north and east of the USA (perhaps the south and west too?) got some unseasonably cold weather - we were snowed on twice and had ice on the inside of the windows for several mornings in succession; all in all, it was not a good time to be trying to sail through Virginia & North Carolina.

Whilst never having seen Dylan's original thread/post, I did around the same time, come across assorted comments/references/p1ss-takes about it and when I Googled 'Plant-Pot Heater' I was duly directed to Dylan's U-Tube video; I watched it and along with the rest of you detractors, I immediately thought: What a load of ball-hooks. The main difference between myself and the rest of the detractors/nay-sayers however, was that I wasn't commenting from the comfort of my centrally-heated house in the Home-Counties, but freezing my nuts off in Great Bridge, East Virginia; with a hardware store/garden-centre only five minutes walk away and with no other cost effective, compact, options immediately to hand, I was desperate enough to give it a lash.

I've no doubt that the more fair-minded detractors might have gone so far as to test Dylan's concept by setting one up and testing its performance, but I suspect that even these experiments/tests were done the ambient-temperature of your centrally heated kitchen or at best/worst the unheated garage? I know from family e-mails that in early/mid November the UK temperatures were quite mild and in those conditions, I don't doubt that your results were disappointing. Our own tests were done in the saloon of a 35' sail-boat, with cabin temperatures @ >8-degrees and with two 'three-candle' pot-heaters going (Bill & Ben), we consistently got the temperature up to 16-17-degrees C; when the temperature dropped to sub-zero, we fired-up Little-Weed too and still managed 14/15C. I accept that this still isn't particularly 'warm' and might well be considered as being little more than taking the 'edge off the chill', but when you're sitting in that 'chill', for real, with no gas/oil-fired central heating to switch-on, you really do appreciate that 'edge' having been taken away.

So, thank you Dylan; we've used your idea, appreciated it greatly and whilst I still can't understand how it works, it does indeed work!
Click to expand...

Even better if you get a couple of fireplace/fireproof grade house bricks heated up when using the oven/gas rings to cook as well. Wrapped in an old towel they will act as foot or bedding warmers to supplement Dylans pots. Worked for me growing up in a cold fireless upstairs bedroom, with a stone hot water bottle, quilt, and utility blankets-remember them, still got a couple of our parents blankets?:encouragement:
 
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This... invention is pretty amazing. It also works the other way around. You can freeze a brick then hold it in your hands and get a cold shock. This reverse technique should be considered instead of the one where candles are involved. Even though this method wouldn't make you warmer (cold brick will make you colder), it will give you a benefit of much cleaner air.
 
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