There have been numerous cases of people surviving harsh winter conditions by heating with a candle. Heating with a candle will not make a comfortable temperature, but it will raise the temperature enough for you to survive longer. The smaller the place you have to heat with a candle the faster it will heat up, this is why in colder environments a lot of people also have a couple of candles in their car, as a simple candle can heat a car fairly easily.
To heat a room with a candle pick the smallest room to heat with it, make sure that all the doors and windows are closed, and there is no wind coming in, as the wind can make it extremely hard to heat up the room with something small like a candle. In addition to this, you should place a clay flower pot on top of the candle, as this will radiate the heat a lot better than a simple candle.
If you are thinking to buy a candle heater just in case my recommendation is to get a candle heating kit which includes everything you need from a candle heater and additional extra candles Click here to check it out on Amazon.com
Hopefully, you will never be in such a bad situation where your only option for heating a room is a candle. People who are forced to heat a room with candles usually do this out of desperation, while it will not keep you comfortable it will raise the interior temperature a couple of degrees, just enough for the person inside to not freeze to death.
For more in-depth information about Prepping Click here to check out my recent guide
You can also use candles to heat your car, as many people living in colder environments almost always have a candle in their car. If the car breaks down or gets stuck in the snow you will have a limited time till you run out of fuel making the car a freezing casket. The smaller the place you are trying to heat the higher the temperature will go with something as simple as a candle.
Some people might even consider heating their own homes just with candles to reduce the cost of living, but do not do this, candles are good for heating small places only. Even if you use hundreds of candles throughout your house the temperature will go up a few degrees but with each additional unsupervised candle, you are increasing the risk factor of setting your house on fire. Heating a room with a candle is an alternative way of heating a room, although there are several more efficient methods on how you can heat a room, for more information check out my article on ( Top 15 ) Best alternative heat sources during power outage.
How To Heat A Room With A Candle?
Heating a room with a candle can be done as a temporary or supplemental heat source, but it is important to exercise caution and follow safety measures. To heat a room with a candle, start by ensuring the candle is placed on a stable, non-flammable surface away from any flammable objects or materials. Use a candle holder or a lantern designed for heating purposes to contain the flame and direct the heat.
Consider using multiple candles or larger candles to generate more heat. Close off any drafts in the room by sealing windows and doors to prevent heat loss. It is essential to never leave a burning candle unattended and to extinguish it before leaving the room or going to sleep.
Earn a 50% Commission on each sale by simply sharing my guides with friends and family on social media, check out Prepping Planet Affiliates
Step 1. Pick The Smallest Room To Heat With A Candle
Your first step for heating a room with a candle is to pick the smallest room in your house. Generally speaking, the smaller the room is the easier it will be to heat with a candle. In addition to this, you should pick a room that has as few exterior walls as possible, as exterior walls dissipate the heat a lot faster which will make it extremely hard to heat it up. Ideally, you should pick a room that is not in direct contact with the ground, such as a room on a floor.
Step 2. Close All Doors And Windows To Keep The Heat Made By The Candle Inside
The second step to heat a room with a candle is to close all the windows and doors, this way the draft will not dissipate the heat. Remember that your main goal is to heat the room as best as you can and you will need to give the candle some help. It is also a good idea to place a towel at the crack of the door as this could also let some cold air in, which you should avoid. If the windows have wooden frames then odds are that there are small cracks in the window frame so you should cover them up as well.
Step 3. Place A Large Flower Pot Above The Candle This Way It Radiates More Heat
The main reason why you want to place a large plant pot above the candle is that the pot will actually help with the heating up of the room. The candle’s flame will heat up the air, but this dissipates rather quickly so you have to use a heat-conducting material to trap the heat for as long as possible, like with a simple plant pot made out of clay or ceramic. Make sure that the pot has a drainage hole as well, this will allow the carbon monoxide to escape and will let the candle flame get as much oxygen as it needs.
How Does A Candle Heat A Room?
Once you light up the candle this will start heating up the air around it with the flame. Once the interior air is already hot, everything in your room will start to absorb the heat and then radiate it outwards. Just like when you sit on a cold chair, once you get up you can feel the heat radiating from the chair if you put your hand on it. What you need to keep in mind is that the smaller the room is the faster it will be heated and the candle will be also much more effective in heating not only the air but surrounding objects as well.
Keep in mind that all objects in your room will affect the interior temperature and as not all objects will have the same heat radiation so the temperature will be different for each room. The smaller the objects are the faster they will heat up and produce the heat radiation effect. In addition to this, not all materials are great for radiating heat back to you, some will take a lot more energy to be able to radiate heat and as all the energy comes from a candle the heat might even be dispersed by these materials. If you want to know how to heat a room without electricity, or any available heating source, then your best bet is to use a candle. If you want to start prepping then check out my recent article How to start prepping in 12 Steps ( Prepping for Beginners ).
A metal object needs a lot more energy to radiate heat than plastic or wooden objects, in addition to this once the temperature gets fairly low these metal objects will actually radiate cold temperature if there is no source of heat nearby. As heat travels upwards it is safe to say that the taller the room the colder it will be and the less efficient will the candle heating be. You need to make sure that the room is well insulated as even the lightest drafts will affect the interior temperature. The heat from the candle flame is around 1600-1800 degrees Kelvin.
If the room is not well insulated on the exterior you will have to do some improvisation, like putting towels or blankets on right below the door to stop the draft, the same goes for windows. If the outside temperature is below freezing, look out the window if there are ice crystals starting to form on the outside it means that the window is not well insulated and hot air is leaking from the inside.
When this hotter air comes in contact with the cold air outside it condenses and forms vapor drops on the exterior of the window which will freeze. Having ice on the outside of the window might even help to trap the heat inside the room, as the ice will most likely form in the places where the hot air is getting out. Make sure that once you have lit your candle put it close to the window for a couple of seconds and observe if it is flickering.
If it is flickering it probably means that there is a draft either coming in or going out, either way, this will not help you heat your room and you must insulate it asap. A candle can pose a serious risk of burning down your entire house, as an extra security you should use a fireproof document bag, for more information check out my recent article Do fireproof bags really work ( Or do they? ).
How Does A Candle Heater Work?
There are a lot of candle heaters that you can find online and offline as well. These are specially designed to produce as much heat as possible in a safe way. Although I personally would invest in something more efficient like a small stove instead of a candle heater. Odds are you will be desperate if you are considering heating a room with just candles, and in this case, you probably do not have a candle heater.
You can improvise, get a thick candle as possible, and make an improvised housing for it. The best item for this is a flower pot made either out of clay or ceramic. Do not attempt to do this with plastic flower pots as eventually this will melt, drip on the open flame, and create a fire and asphyxia hazard. If you have ever seen plastic burning you probably know the black smoke it creates, now imagine that in a small room with limited airflow.
Flower pots are extremely good as these also have a small space where the water flows out and this will be the air vent for your candle. Put the candle on the floor, and put some elevated objects around it on to which you will place the flower pot upside down. Make sure that there is enough elevation between the candle and the flower pot and that air can circulate in this space. This way the candle will draw in air from the sides to burn and it will have a place to vent which is the hole in the flower pot.
You will not get this on your first try, keep a lookout on the flame, if it is flickering then you either need to increase the elevation or the flower pot is too close to the actual flame and the upward warm draft of air is having a difficult time getting out through the hole of the pot. Keep on trying till you get a good steady teardrop flame and also keep an eye out for how evenly the wax is melting. You want evenly melting wax on all sides to make the candle last as long as possible.
Clay or ceramic flower pots are best for heating as they heat up quickly and radiate a lot of heat outwards, even after the flame has gone out. In case you do not find any flower pots you need to use whatever you can, as long as it is not flammable. Try to make a small housing for the candle just like with the flower pot.
In addition to this, you can also use other flower pots or even rocks placed a few inches away from the housing. Just make sure the candle can still get plenty of oxygen to burn, stones are excellent heat radiators although it will take them some time to heat up, but once they are hot they will keep radiating heat for hours. A high quality sleeping bag or an alternative to it can keep you warm even during the cold winter night, for more information check out my recent article ( Top 19 ) Alternatives to sleeping bags.
Heating A Room Can Be A Fire Hazard
As with all open flames in a house, this will also create a fire hazard, if you have several candles try and space them out, this way they will be more efficient in heating the air. If you bunch up several candles they will last less than normal as the wax around the candle will begin to melt faster due to the additional heat sources of the other candles. The best practice if you only have one candle is to put it in the middle of the room away from any flammable objects.
While putting the candle near the wall might be a good idea as you probably think that it will heat up the wall, but this is actually a bad idea as you will heat up that wall and the heat will escape on the other side of the wall. Your priority is to trap in as much heat as possible in the room where you are as safe as possible. If you find yourself in an unfamiliar location make sure there are no spider webs on the walls, if there are taking these down will be a priority.
Spider webs are lighter than air, once the room starts to heat up due to the candle fire, spider webs might become airborne, and if these land on the candle they will catch on fire instantly. While a single spider web isn’t enough to start a fire if there are several of them they might become a fire hazard. If you are worried about a prolonged power outage then you should check out my recent article Power outage grocery list ( Top 38 Items ).
The Candles Heating The Room Can Make A Lot Of Smoke
Usually when a candle is starting to smoke it is due to the wick, it is either too long or the actual wick is of poor quality. However, candles can make smoke also if they are hit by a draft or if there is not enough space for them to burn oxygen efficiently. In the case of a draft, most candles will stop making noticeable smoke once you have dealt with the draft. While one candle no matter how poor quality it is will not cause an asphyxiation hazard, but if you have several candles that produce a lot of smoke in a small cramped room, in this case, you will have a major asphyxia hazard.
Some people out of desperation to try and heat the room faster might light on fire strips of paper o other flammable objects. In theory, this will help heat up the room faster but depending on the material you will end up with a lot of smoke and possibly a fire hazard. The last thing you want to do while trying to heat a room with a candle is to open the doors and windows to ventilate out the smoke.
How To Make Your Candle Last Longer For Heating A Room
Depending on what type of candle you use there are some ways to make your candle last even longer. If you have a narrow tall candle there is nothing you can do about it from burning as normal, but if you have a wider candle where below the flame a pool of liquid wax forms then you can prolong the burn of the candle. Once the liquid pool of wax forms right below the flame simply put out the flame and wait for a couple of seconds for the wax to get solid again and then reignite the candle.
You can do this as often as the pool of liquid wax forms and as liquid wax will turn solid in just a couple of seconds the amount of heat loss will be minimal. Simply put the longer you can keep the wax around your candle the slower it will burn thus increasing its burn time which will also increase the heating factor. You also need to make sure that your flame has a teardrop form if it is flickering it will start burning unevenly and will not be able to form the pool of liquid wax below the flame. If you are wondering how to heat a room cheaply, then heating with candles is not the best way for it as heating a room with a candle is fairly ineffective when compared to the other heating options.
If the candle has some sort of housing around it this will also affect the longevity of your candle. If the housing is close to the candle this will absorb than radiate the heat back at the candle making it melt a lot faster than usual. In addition to this, the candle will also not melt evenly and the molten wax will flow out on the sides which you do not want.
Key Takeaways
- Choose a candle holder that is sturdy and heat-resistant to ensure safety during the heating process. Avoid using flammable materials as candle holders.
- Place a heat-resistant material, such as aluminum foil or a metal tray, behind the candle to reflect and maximize the heat output towards the desired area. This helps to increase the efficiency of heat distribution.
- Before heating the room with a candle, close windows and doors to prevent drafts and minimize heat loss. Additionally, insulate the room by using draft stoppers or sealing any gaps to keep the heat trapped inside.
