Do Clay Pot Heaters With Candles Work? Off Grid Emergency Heater, Free Greenhouse Heater
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- Опубліковано 6 жов 2024
- Clay pot tealight heaters have been promoted as an off grid way of heating, that they make an effective way of heating greenhouses, but do they actually work? I made some free long burning candles so i can heat the greenhouses on cold nights.
Candle heaters can provide heat in small spaces effectively and heat greenhouse for free if made using the fat burning candle i demoonstrated.
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I recently watched a video about how the Chinese keep their greenhouses warm in the winter without heaters. It was an eye-opener, and such a no-brainer idea. They do the same thing to their greenhouses at night that you and I do when we go to bed to keep warm - they cover their greenhouses with blankets. In the morning they roll the blankets up - but only on the south side facing the sun. The north side stays completely covered because there is no sun coming in to warm the greenhouse from that side and the blankets serve like insulation. In the afternoon, once the sun gets low enough so that the greenhouse temperature starts to drop, they roll the blankets down again to help keep the warmth inside from escaping. They keep the east and west sides covered as well because in the morning and afternoon, the sun is too low in the sky in the winter to warm the greenhouse and if left uncovered, the inside warmth just escapes thru the glass. So my suggestion in to cover your greenhouse with blankets and during the day roll them up to expose the south side only. That will likely go a long way to making your candle heaters a little more efficient.
Insulation is definately a great idea, i thought about how i could wrap it up, just havne't figured out how i could do it. I'd be really interested in this film to see how they've done it
@@MyFamilyGarden Here is the link that started me thinking about modifying my 12 x 12 greenhouse. They are in Alberta, Canada. Very cold. I think you will find it interesting. I do recommend that you subscribe to the channel because of all the videos they have on this very subject. Combining the insulation blankets with what you are doing for candle heat may very well be the key to successfully growing in the winter in your greenhouse. Enjoy
ua-cam.com/video/12ToaqGLNY0/v-deo.html&ab_channel=SimpleTek
I do think that hot beds are the best solution. I remember seeing a TV series about 30 years ago called 'the Victorian kitchen garden'. The old gardener, a gent named Harry Dobson, set up hot beds to produce crops all winter, and these were just under cold frames rather than in a greenhouse. I'd always wanted to try it but forgot until I saw you do it last year. We did it last winter and had salad leaves all winter thanks to a hotbed of grass cuttings and chopped leaves.
Keep up the great content. Thanks.
I really like hot beds, but the bed i normally use is currently taken so limited for options
So often we see, the final result, then an explanation of how it was done.
It's nice to see the process from the start and work through the problems with you. Good luck
Thanks for sharing this information, Monty. Lots of point to consider in heating a greenhouse.
Morning Monty I don’t grow a lot over winter but like the idea of warming up the greenhouse if I did. Merry Christmas to you and the family 🎄🤶🇨🇦🐝 safe
If you can use bubble wrap (inside) it’s very effective and keeps the temperature much warmer
Just a thought but you could reduce the area your heating by using those very light very thin polythene sheets for decorating.
Maybe drape them around your plants.
There cheap as chips
That's a thought the only thing stopping me was buying additional plastic, if i can get hold of some second hand bags or something then that would work but need to bear in mind the fire risk
@@MyFamilyGarden I had them same thoughts as I was typing.
Maybe you could put a post out on a free site requesting the sheets.
And I'm sure you could construct a safe area
It is a great idea... maybe see if you can find a bigger tin, like the catering ones and put 3 or 4 wicks in it. it should burn for longer and maybe kick up the heat a bit as well.
Hi...just a thought for your home made candles...why don't you insert a tall regular candle into your container, cut candle to fit... pour the fat and let it set up before use. Also keep the wick short before lighting it. That might stop the wick from falling into the fat. Thanks for the video. Cheers!
I've tried that the candle doesn't provide a big enough flame so doesn't burn the oil as well, the centre burns but not the sides.
The length of the wick won't make a difference as the whole can becomes liquid after an hour, so it needs something to keep it upright
Interesting video however the science doesn’t support the use of greenhouse candle heaters. It’s been something I’ve been following and looking into since last winter and I had planned to do a sciency video to try and explain what and why it doesn’t work. I mean you are right in that you need loads and yes of course if you had loads and loads it’s going to be enough to raise the heat. The trouble is the fuel source can only give off the heat (based on its calorific value) the bricks and pots don’t add anything or indeed dissipate it further. It takes as much energy to warm them up as it does for them to release once the candle goes out. Also there are things like ambient stored heat inside the GH such as the soil and other mass in there which might effect results or give false positives. In addition the greenhouse will lose more heat than the candles put out unless you can use more candles than the loss. The big plus is that your heat source is free but how many would you need to overcome losses, (I need to find someone far more clever than I to work it out)? Thanks for the video, look forward to a follow up.
This is not the same as a wax candle, it's closer to an oil heater. I can't use a traditional oil burning design because my fuel source is solid not liquid, but I do need to work in the design so I get a cleaner burn.
You're right the pots etc don't create heat but they act as a thermal mass, something to store the heat and release it slower, just like in a mass heater, the rate at which they lose heat is slower than the rate air loses heat.
@@MyFamilyGarden not withstanding we cant change the laws of physics the only heat that goes in is what comes out of the candles (or fuel source). I get that a mass can release heat but it can only release what it has to hold so ideally you want a large mass heated in the day for free so it can release that at night. More nighttime heat sources (as you mentioned) is the way to go to overcome heat loss. Another option to better the effectiveness is to lessen the area that requires heating by lowering the ceiling perhaps by using a plastic sheet, not overly practical granted but it all helps.
@@MyFamilyGarden fascinating that you're trying this. Afraid (I'm a physicist sorry) I believe Baltic Homesteaders has a good point. I'm not clear from the video if you're heating the bricks/sand in the day to release heat at night. In that case, yes it makes sense to have extra thermal mass in there. On the other hand if you're lighting your candles in the evening when the heat is needed, the extra thermal mass is just giving you more that needs to be warmed up. That is, they would cause you to actually need more energy to raise the temperature of the greenhouse overall, because now you aren't just heating the greenhouse, you're also heating the blocks. But I don't know how significant an addition to the thermal mass of the greenhouse the bricks might be... I wonder what depth of soil is relevant for instance.
Anyway I think what I'd be tempted to do on a chilly evening is to leave any blocks that are already warm from day burning, but if I added extra candles I wouldn't add any additional (cold) bricks by them (other than might be needed for safety/stability).
What do you think?
Thanks for sharing, I tried this will large pillar candles on a clay plate and the pot over it and it made a fantastic difference. I have bought some soy wax to make some more, soy wax or bees wax ( more expensive ) have a much cleaner and longer burn and also by putting candles in taller metal pots that are higher than the wick, the metal container will also melt the wax. With soft fats a wood wick will work much better and i find its easy to renew, pull out of pots while pots are still hot after blowing out with some old forceps / thin nose pliers. Take care, great video
I’ve tried it once but probably didn’t put much effort into it … with candles … I tried growing onions from seed from September… they seemed to grow quite well .. I should try it next year..
One Yard Revolution had big containers of water in his hoop house to act as a heat store. He certainly felt they made a difference. Perhaps you could combine that with the candle heaters to see if you could get more sustained heating?
Water is a great way of storing heat, i've got a few buckets of water in there, i'm looking for an old boiler that i could hook up to a radiator.
I think you could double glaze your wooden greenhouse, focus on keeping the heat in rather that adding more. I like the blanket idea someone commented with, I cover my quail when its bitterly cold
Lots of great information, thanks for sharing!
All your heat is going to wind up in the peak. You need to plastic your ceiling trellis so it traps more heat closer to your plants. If you're going to use small flame, you need to heat smaller spaces. There's no reason to heat the whole greenhouse ... just the plants. So tent the plants and then direct your heat into their tent. Dead air is the key since moving air generates varying degrees of wind chill that expose plants in a micro climate of chill. I recommend clear plastic everywhere to allow solar penetration even on overcast days, and watch for any plastic drooping near heater to melt or burn - always a danger - so prop plastic walls up adequately so even condensation won't push it down on the DIY heater during the night. Be sure to monitor heat UNDER the tent over plants, not at the ceiling. You're not creating a day spa in there, just taking the bite off chill.
You can't leave plants under plastic all winter without daily ventilation because they'll strip the air of CO2 needed for dark photosynthesis and stop growing completely. Gotta air out the gh to replenish their CO2 for their night work.
The REAL cold is down on the ground where drafts flow so you need to monitor that too. I put my beds up higher off the ground out of the draft zone, and use the space underneath for storage or insulation, but I see some of your crops are in the soil so there's that to think about. Another method is to sheet bubble wrap the walls, or simply use the big bubbles that come as padding in shipping boxes to wrap plants most in danger to create dead air there.
Of course they work. You have to light about 60 & dont mind the ash which will collect on your plant leaves.
Oh, yeah, and the expense. Lots of candles are not particularly cheap.
!
I use birthday candles for the wicks
John Tradescant (c.1570 - 1638) had hot stones from a fire pit and put them in there versions of green house to keep oranges and lemons in midwinter in the UK back 1600 AD you could do the same
This is a similar idea but with constant heating for a longer period with the pots acting as the rocks, if i could get the storage heater bricks then that would make a big difference
I use a compost heap in my poly tunnel
That's what I normally use but can't this year
Love your suspicious butcher ☺️
The physics of this just doesn’t seem like it should work. Seems like several flames akin to a tiki torch might be necessary. Looking forward to seeing if you can make it work
With ordinary candles the flame doesn't generate enough heat, these wicks and the fuel can make quite a big flame hot and hot flame, so the heat generated is similar to a small fire
So do they work?
Today's vlog could have been a comedy show. Butcher and the fat......you might be eating them.....Next time you go back to him, he might give you funny looks...made me chuckle. You are quite inventive. You should be a scientist. Haha. Wonder what next for you..Always wait for your vlogs
You are a pure soulful person Have a great festive holidays and a very Prosperous new year 🙏
Ultimately you need to install a rocket mass heater, there are vids on YT for Greenhouse RMH.