Candle heating systems

[Peaceand]

Hi,
A lot of us have diesel or gas heaters fitted now, but I've seen a few different candle based heating systems and thought it may be worth posting them here and seeing if anybody has any other suggestions.

Tealights floated in water in a metal bowl - a chap at the Adventure Overland Show reckoned that a few tealights in his sink kept the vehicle warm throughout winter. Floating them in water kept the wax cooler and made them last longer. It was a fairly modern VW camper, so probably better insulated than out Land Rovers.

Candles under a flowerpot - I think Gordon mentioned this one, using a couple of ceramic flowepots over a tealight or two, the idea is that they heat up and both radiate heat as well as pull air through the pots and warm it.
Here's a person claiming to heat his office with one of these and a computer: http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/im-hea ... 31828.html
A standard PC probably puts out about 140 watts of heat, a flatscreen monitor about 60watts. Looking around on the internet it seems a single tealight is probably about 30 watts. So in this example most of the heat would be coming from his computer.

But if nothing else, some kind of candle should keep the temperature in your camper above freezing point!

Patrick

[overlander]

Absolutely Patrick, way back I did a particularly cold, winter Trans-Sahara in my Carawagon and overnighted at Assekrem 12000' up in the Hoggar. A simple way of keeping the interior bearable at night was to put the stove on for a few minutes when getting ready for bed and again first thing in the morning - job done - very effective and no extra weight carried or space taken up by a fixed heater. KISS.(More significant was my fruitless search for ant-freeze deep in the Sahara )

John H

[catnap]

sounds like a good idea
I'll go to a local hardware shop and ask for four candles...

[RMS]

sounds like a good idea
I'll go to a local hardware shop and ask for four candles...

Don't forget to ask for 'O's as well

[RMS]

Agreed, the stove is a quick way to heat the inside, but it also produces water vapour.

Ask Steve about scraping ice off the inside of his roof!!

The 'proper' cab heaters exhaust outside so give a dry heat.

I've still got an under-floor propane heater from a folding camper to try out in one of my projects - this doesn't use any power apart from propane, and so can be left on low all night if needed. Again, the exhaust exits outside so is safe to leave on all night.
I'm not sure whether to fit it to the Esterelle, the Dandy (both folding campers) or one of the Carawagons


I'll wait for Patrick to try out the candles - perhaps up on Grewelthorpe Moor after Christmas?

Cheers,
Robin.

[overlander]

Fortunately my roof was flock lined and in any event the stove was only on for a few minutes at a time - and that was back in the days when I could remember stuff for several minutes, like switching off the stove before I fell asleep

John H

[Peaceand]

I'll wait for Patrick to try out the candles - perhaps up on Grewelthorpe Moor after Christmas?

I'll give it a go, but with the eberspacher ready if it gets too cold.