Posted on 01/09/2014 12:58:24 PM PST by RKBA Democrat
As parts of the United States prepare for record-breaking cold temperatures, a YouTube video showing an alternative way to heat your home might come in handy.
The video, which we first found on Why Don't You Try This, was made by journalist and boat-owner Dylan Winter. All you need to make this do-it-yourself heater are tea lights, a loaf tin, and two clay flower pots.
You can find tea light candles at pretty much any drug or hardware store. A pack of 50 is only $5.99 at CVS, for instance.
In the video, Winter places four tea lights into a loaf tin and covers them with a small flower pot that's turned upside down. He then covers the drain hole on the bottom of the small pot with the metal casing from one of the tea lights. The small pot is covered by a bigger flower pot and the hole is not covered.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
“When I was in Alaska, 45 years ago, we were told to keep at least TWO cans of STERNO and a STERNO stove in the car in winter.”
I have enough Sterno and several sterno stoves so I can cook for a year.
I’m watching a show on Nat Geo right now about how to survive and fight off an extra terrestrial invasion. LOL
Seems silly on the face of it but there are some good legitimate points being made that we often don’t think about. Things like outbreeding an enemy that likely can’t send reinforcements.
LOL!!!!
That’s funny no matter what!!!
Looks like you’ve still got yer hare....
Here’s a link to a woodstove system that produces a gas that can run a generator, run a propane refrigerator, make fuel for a car, heat hot water and heat the house at the same time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arbXj9R6ZXw
I read this article a couple of months ago and made the setup to try it out. I used 4 tea candles and 2 pots just like he did,with the tea candles inside of a meat loaf pan that I lined with foil so it wouldn’t get ruined. I placed it in my bathroom which is about 8x8 with an 8 foot ceiling and put a thermometer a couple of feet away. After about an hour the pot was nice and warm but the room temperature hadn’t budged. The tea candles also didn’t last 4 hours but they did last over 2, close to 3.
Bottom line is that it will work. It won’t warm a room but it does make a nice hand warmer. Since I had the thing set up I actually did use it as a hand warmer while I was watching a movie one evening and it was okay for the money. If you have all of the items already available like I did it’s worth a try. I wouldn’t go out of my way to buy and make one though.
There is one born every minute.
I bought some zippo hand warmers (new) on ebay a few years ago. One for each of us - throw it in a sleeping bag and should keep us comfortable.
Check your cans. Shake them. If the slosh they are still good. If the don’t, or if they rattle, the alcohol is dried out and will not work.
You may be asking to much from some of these people ;)
Using two tiny candles to heat your house is against the law: The First Law of Thermo-Dynamics!
Kind of tricky. Existing systems of this type can weigh a ton or more. However, with some high tech materials and design, I can imagine them considerably smaller and lighter.
IIRC there was mention on this site that you had posted a very useful thread or post on rechargeable small batteries. If so maybe you could repost a link.
Anyway, here’s a lessons learned tip.
We get frequent power outages in our area that have nothing to do with storms. Just outdate equipment and lines designed for 1950’s home, not the power hogs of today.
For just lighting went through candles, kerosene light, propane camping lights. All combustion lights have there drawbacks, fuel storage hazard, smell, CO. & CO2 potential.
Then came the cheap LED puck lights. First generation pretty shoddy. Newer ones much better. Installed several under kitchen cabinets, roughly no mare than 15” apart. It’s very bright at counter level. And the are always there. No panicked rummaging and every one knows exactly where they are. Every bookcase has 2 with light directed upwards.
Thing is that the lose effective working light levels but there’s still juice in those AA’s & D’s. So I worked out a cascading system swapping batteries from high effective power use to medium to low.
Example LED patio light uses 8 D cells, lasts about 3 months with light usage. As light level dims, the slightly used batteries go to 30 year old radio casette player. Five D’s run radio only 10 to 12 hrs a day for more than a week. Used AA’s go to smaller radios
Than the price of solar patio LED lights dropped like a stone, less than $5 each. Usually powered by NiCad AA.
I swapped out Eneloops for longer life. But the really cheap lights were better used indoors as night step lights. With the AA now at the bottom of the food chain, in these cheap fixtures they provide low level amber colred light fot 10 to 12 hrs before they’re completely depleted, that’s non-rechargeable throw aways. Light enough not to step on the home critters and a small soul heartening glow. The same circuit that activates the light at dark works well inside.
When we throw away a battery there’s not enough juice to seduce a firefly.
That’s my strategy for what it’s worth.
Oh, a roll of Visqueen and a few rolls of painters tape work better than tea candles. Apply to inside of window as additional thermal/draft barriers. Then add combustion heat as required. In any casr one will need far less. $30 Coleman camp propane heats a 20x20 room to 58 degrees in zero degree weather. Fourteen hours on 1 lb bottle. Not toasty but it’s winter isn’t.
Did you read post 4?
-—— it will also suck all the oxygen out of the house.——
most houses leak enough to permit inflow ......... cold air inflow
A gallon of kerosene and a wicked jar would be better
Here it is:
My Solar Power Set Up:
(Note to anyone who wants to argue about batteries with me – I won’t respond to such posts – I’m not arguing – been there, done that, too many times.)
I researched solar panels and chargers and rechargeable batteries for a month or more to put together something that would work for me and not have to take out a loan at the bank to pay for it. In my mind, I have the best solar panel and best rechargeable batteries to accomplish the task.
Rechargeable Batteries:
I know I have the best rechargeable batteries available. I wrote numerous articles on Survival Podcast about batteries, but you don’t have to read what I wrote as I went through that – it’s the final choice that is important. If you don’t think I have the best, I can direct you to those articles and you can read them, or just take my word about that and get these. I was pissed that Energizer and Duracell and others you would buy at Walmart, grocery store, drug stores, changed their D batteries and put the power of a AA in their D rechargeables. What an absolute rip off, especially when you need high powered Ds as they used to make. Well, I wrote articles about that to alert people to that problem. The D batteries are listed below.
Solar Panel:
There are so many you will get lost trying to find what you need. I wanted a solar panel with a good charger that attaches to the panel and charges all sizes of batteries in a reasonable amount of time and didn’t cost a fortune. I found the right one and you’d have to kill me to take it from me. You can also recharge a low or high end cell phone and a Kindle or an Ipad. You use the cigarette plug you have for your phone (to charge in a car) and it has that mini USB connector on the other end and attach your phone or Ipad or Kindle to that connector and plug the cigarette plug in the cigarette port on the solar panel. You will understand this when you read about the panel/charger.
The panel has a long cord and I’ll put the panel in the sun and run that cord under the roof over my deck so the charger itself can be in the shade. If you can’t find a place to put the charger in the shade, make shade over it with a table or whatever. I don’t want the charger directly out in the Texas sun. It is fast to recharge batteries (charge four AA in three hours). Here is the solar panel/charger:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007SFWTMW/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Here are the Sanyo eneloop batteries. You can get any size on this page (they don’t make a high capacity D):
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004SB1TD4/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Here are high capacity low self-discharge Tenergy Centura Ds I need for my fans and two lanterns: “Provides ultra-long use time per charge with this super high 8000mAh capacity”. There is a 10,000 mAh and maybe one more higher, but the charger using solar power will not charge these to capacity so it’s a waste of money to buy higher than 8000. Note the color of these batteries – it is white. They have these 8000 in another color but that color is NOT the low self-discharge. These white ones are the NEW low self-discharge type. If you buy these elsewhere, make sure they are the white ones.
That was almost a light speed response! Thank you very much.
And think of the heat produced by incandescent light bulbs that helped out before the were banned for “environmentally friendly” florescent bulbs containing MERCURY.
Why do you keep directing people to buy Sanyo Eneloop batteries that are two generations behind their modern versions?
I recommend Sanyo Eneloop rechargeables, but people need to buy the most current version of them, in the US, that is generation3 (gen 4 in Japan) which are improved from the older versions.
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