/diy/ challenge

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This shit here is what made me think of it.
I thought it must be bullshit, but apparently tons of people do it and it's not.
So, peltiers seem silly for this, plus heat loss out the sides. Stirling engines, I doubt they'd have the power to turn a generator.
Steam engines, I dunno.

I'm thinking of a peltier with a metal cone underneath it, maybe? The top just a metal cup full of water to pull heat out.

>>1104312
>I thought it must be bullshit
Bingo!
>but apparently tons of people do it and it's not.
I better give Scientology. Astrology, and trickle down economics a shot then!

You can't increase the power output of a candle but putting a couple of pots over it. It just means you heat the pots instead of the air. A fair amount of that heat is lost in the pots, regardless.

TL;DR, it's bullshit.

>>1104320
I thought that, then started wondering where the heat in a normal candle goes.
If it creates a small amount of very hot air, and that air shoots directly up to the roof and escapes the house, then it's not gonna do much.
If that very hot air is captured in something, say, an upturned pot with a big chunk of metal in the middle to act as a sink, then the temperature is lowered yet spread, you could perhaps get some nice warm air rather than a small amount of mega hot shit.

It is funny though, how much the pots look like a certain anti gravity device.


Anyway, looking around I've seen a handful of calculations that put the energy stored in a tealight at around 150wh, with some burning in 9 hours, others at around 4, that's a max constant output of 40 watts.
That's enough RAW energy to power 5V at 8A.
Just need to find the most efficient heat to electricity converter that works at such low power.

>>1104324
You do know that, based on the average price of a tea candle, it would be cheaper to buy an electric space heater and power it than to use them for heating, right?

Sell the fuckers on CL and get a space heater.

>>1104320

It's all to do with how that energy is used, stored and radiated that makes the difference

>>1104320
But you can make it so you can use all the heat of a candles without burning yourself .

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>>1104309
>How do you get the most of the ~100wh of energy these little blighters have in them?

Antimatter annihilation.

>>1104332
Apocalypse, no other power, batteries that hold their charge for 20+ years yada yada.
>>1104378
So now all I can think of is stupid energy sources in a post apocalyptic world.
Vienna sausages, a exercise bike rigged up with a bunch of brushless outrunners, and a person to eat the sausages and pedal.

>>1104309
Parafin has an energy content of about of of 42kj/g.

You can get a 30pack for $2 from the dollar general store which has 272 grams of parafin wax candles, or 11,424kj of energy. Or 3173Wh

For comparison purposes, buying that energy in the form of wall pixies would cost you about 35 cents.

So tealights arent the most economical. BulkApothecary sells just straight up parafin wax bulk. You can buy 2040lbs for $3166 which provides 10795kwh. In electricity terms this would cost about $1200.

The supposed bennefit that these stupid tealight pottery lamps provide is that it converts some, SOME of the thermal energy produced into stored heat in the pots which radiates to you in the infrared spectrum

Think about this for a second. If its cold enough for you to try and heat a room you're probably wearing, or should be wearing, more than pajama bottoms and no top. If you're wearing any thickness of clothing the heat radiated by these pots will not be felt by you.

In survival situations your best bet is to insulate your own body and have a draft free location you can shelter in place.

In life or death situations, spending any resources heating up your room is a waste of effort and time. Spend your money on things to keep the heat your body generates on you.

>>1104434
I'm saying it's a good idea to have tea lights on hand in an apocalypse because they're invaluable for so many other things, not necessarily heating.
I'm just trying to work out the feasibility of using them for energy storage.
Even at 10% efficiency, a 15wh battery the size of a tealight with a 20+ year stasis period is something we just don't have today.
No wall pixies, lithium needs recharging every few months, petrol goes off after time, but candles just sit as they are.
If you could get 30% efficiency that'd be fucking insane.

>>1104312
What the cunting motherfuck am I looking at

>>1104378

>2017 - 5 days
>Not preparing vienna sausage musubi

If taken literally about there being "only" the sausages and there is no rice, I would cut them into little octopuses.

>>1104459
If you're talking 10+ years you're better off planting some trees.

>>1104459
>I'm saying it's a good idea to have tea lights on hand in an apocalypse because they're invaluable for so many other things, not necessarily heating.

There will be plenty of shit to burn. What you need after an apocalypse is not fantasyfapfodder. What you need is what REAL people use successfully over many years where SHTF is normal, like Somalia or Detroit.

If you live where it's cold, you need CLOTHING sufficient that you don't NEED much heat. You need shelter (easy), firepower, medical supplies, KNOWLEDGE, and a MILITIA of bros to kill enemies with. Omega Man shit doesn't work IRL.

Put your tealights in a box and go do proper, thorough serious historical and technical homeworks. If you are just playing, make pretend cars out of your tendies and use the tea lights for traffic lights or something.

>>1104507
FWIW you can render dead enemies into tallow for candles.

>>1104467
Ghetto ceramic radiator.

Made one once when I didn't have heat. It sorta worked but I put like 5 tea lights under other and kept it real close. Could definitely tell when it wasn't being heated anymore.

>>1104506
Trees aren't good as candles, candles are.
If candles are also good as trees, isn't that good?
>>1104507
NIGGA, INSTANT LIGHT SOURCE
I only mentioned the heater as an example as the sort of energy output you can get from these things, not as an apocalypse use case scenario.

>>1104508
Food is scarce = no fat on foes.

>>1104493
>not smushing them up, steeping the paste with menthol chewing tobacco, repackaging it, and selling it as an amuse pate
it's like you don't know how to develop nicotine enhanced brand loyalty

>>1104312
>>1104511

Would one of these work to help warm under a truck topper for camping trips?

>>1106950

Built one, gonna test it snow camping tomorrow in northern AZ.

>>1107102
Love to actually hear how it goes.

>>1104309
>stocking candles
>not smokes and beer

>>1104309
If you aim to be king of this war-torn country, you're better off stocking up on addictive substances
>booze
>caffeinated drinks/coffee
>cigarettes/tobacco plants and seeds
>Perhaps opiates, if you can get your hands on them.

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>>1104309
>How do you get the most of the ~100wh of energy these little blighters have in them?

1: I would hydrolyze my beeswax tea light candles then eat the wax. My body would get as much energy out of it that it can biologically. Then I'd waste my wastes and put them into a biogas digestor to make biomethane for (heating and cooking) and high nitrogen fertilizer (for growing food.)

2: If I had a full set of Solocore insulated clothing, I wouldn't need heating at all.

3: Only use the candles for cooking/warming water, use a rocket stove and a thermal mass cooker, eat the heat.

>>1104312
Everyone shits on these, but there's one thing most people don't understand. They perform a couple of actions. The main way they help is to increase the size of the air volume that is being heated.

1: Normally the heat column of a candle shoots straight to the ceiling in a thin ribbon where it quickly pools and has its heat absorbed into the ceiling quickly. Using the clay pots helps to spread out and make this heat column become wider. When it is wider, more heat is transferred to the air. This slows down heat absorption on the ceiling and a small marginal factor.

2: Using these clay pots increase the thermal mass. Allows the heat to warm up more air than normal, also slowing down heat loss through the ceiling.

The best thing you can do is to omit clay pots and use a ceiling fan (any air movement helps more than a tea light clay pot radiator). The fan helps to prevent the heat from stratifying on the ceiling where it is quickly lost. If you want to keep heat in the room longer, increase the thermal mass in the room (black-painted water containers are best for this.)

>>1104434
so it would be beter to prepare a hot tea with the tea lights and drinking it

>>1104309
>Shit's fucked yo, luckily you read that screenshot of that dudes blog who's country fell into war, and you where prepared.

Could you provide a link to that blog, please?

>>1108523
Most likely this,

http://shtfschool.com/blog/

I've not read it in years though.

>>1104324
>>1104334
>>1104337

Thermodynamics would like to talk.

A ceramic pot does not make the candle generate more heat. It will not make the room any warmer than uncovered. The only benefit here is that it gives you something to put your hands on that won't burn you.

>>1108539
> It will not make the room any warmer than uncovered.

see
>>1107512

>>1108564
I sincerely hope you're trolling.

ad 1: You have a limited amount of energy stored as wax. A wide, cooler column of air still rises to the ceiling, where it is absorbed slower than a hotter, thinner column of air but over a larger surface making absolutely no diference at all.

ad 2: As you know all processes have losses and due to that heating some mass and then having the mass heat the air is actually less efficient than heating the air directly, which is another reason why this idea is not feasible.

Increasing thermal mass in a room will not allow it to keep heat in longer, that's what insulation does. Increasing thermal mass increases energy capacity of the whole room, and when that thermal mass loses its energy to the (presumably) cooler room you feel like thermal mass made the room stay warm longer. That is the case, but only because you used more energy to heat more mass in the first place.

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>>1108581
Thanks for playing, but unfortunately you don't know how any of this works.

>All you have is millions of tea light candles and anything you can find in the local abandoned hackerspace you took over.

Bullshit proposition. GTFO.

>>1107471

1. Need better candles than tea lights, they just didnt have the omph needed in 30 degree weather.
2. Was so fucking windy the drafts in my tent with a tarp over my rainfly took care of venting had a vent cracked as well.
3. Only took the edge off the cold, if that.
4. Did work wonders to safely dry off my beanies that got soaked and warmed them up nicely.

Overall, im disappointed in the tea lights, not the device, will try again with bigger, better candles. If anything it was an amazing beanie dryer that i desperately needed.

>>1108979
You did it wrong . Your not supposed to heat the tent. Think of it more like a hot water bottle.