How To Build A Clay Pot Candle Heater & Do They Really Work?

Are clay pot heaters a wise last-resort warmth tool? Or just a silly gimmick?

Over the years, I’ve seen some incredible claims…

They usually center on getting something of high value for practically no cost.

Sound familiar? Sounds like an infomercial to me…

Some folks claim to heat an entire room with nothing but a few tea-light candles.

So let’s uncover the truth and see if a candle heater is as good as the rumors claim:

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Best Candle Heater On The Market Today

Before you get too far down the “clay pot candle heater rabbit hole” the quick answer is YES, THEY DO WORK…just not very well.

I wouldn’t stake my families lives on it…that’s for sure.

So if you’re looking for a REAL solution that takes the science behind a “clay pot candle heater” and scales it up so it actually works, check out the Vesta Self Powered Indoor Space Heater:

↓ VESTA: The Ultimate Self-Powered Indoor Space Heater!

↓ Vesta Self-Powered Indoor Space Heater Review

Best DIY Clay Pot Candle Heater Designs

To start off, let’s take a minute to watch one of the original videos that started this clay pot heater frenzy:

↓ Candle Powered Air Heater – Flower Pot Heater

So the idea is to use stacked terracotta pots and a couple of candles to generate enough heat to warm a room.

With my engineering background, it’s hard to see how math can work out on a project like this.

A candle flame only puts out so much heat, and it’s small compared to even a modest electric space heater.

After analyzing kerosene vs. propane heaters, I was extremely skeptical, to say the least.

But most projects like this are based on some bit of truth, so it was worth exploring.

It turns out that people have been building versions of a candle-powered heater for years.

And there are lots of videos and plans to build your own DIY version of it at home (which you can find later in this article).

↓ Easy DIY Terra Cotta Heater

↓ How To Heat A Room With Clay Pots Heater

Now, nearly all candle-powered heaters share a few things in common.

You will already know basic clay pot heater design from watching the videos above.

A heater body is formed with nesting clay pots, often separated by and attached to a central steel bolt.

The bolt has additional steel washers in the spaces between pots to form a basic heat exchanger.

This clay pot structure is usually nested at least two levels deep.

This setup creates a series of internal spaces between the pots.

Once constructed, the heater body is flipped over and supported by bricks, pans, or a metal stand.

This allows you to position the center bolt directly above a small candle.

When the candle is lit, the flame heats the steel bolt directly, causing it to heat the clay pots.

The pots also trap the hot air rising from the flame.

This “trap” slows the heat escape into the surrounding cold air and gives it time to heat the clay further.

As the candle burns, the interior chambers can reach relatively high temperatures.

All the candle heat slowly builds in the mass of the clay pots.

After some time, you can begin feeling the heat on the outside surface of the largest pot.

Such a simple idea, but does it really work?

Before I attempt to answer that question, let’s see what others have said about the clay pot heater.

The Clay Pot Candle-Heated Debate

In my research, I found many passionate people who favor clay pot heaters and those against them.

These little heaters have caused quite a stir.

People share videos of them working like a charm to warm a small room, while others debunk such claims.

And the debate is not always civil; I stumbled across a surprising amount of name-calling!

So, let’s review the main arguments for and against the clay pot heater.

Those For

But don’t just take my word for it. Let’s hear from others who claim this clay pot heater does an excellent job of heating a small space.

Here are three videos that “prove” these little candle heaters work:

↓ Clay Pot Heater Test | Does It Actually Work?!

↓ Clay Pot With Tea Lights Room Heating

↓ A DIY Tiny House Heater

Those Against

However, I don’t want to leave out the “against” arguments.

Here’s a video from someone who doesn’t think these clay post heaters are worth the time and effort to make.

↓ Flower Pot Heaters Don’t Freaking Work

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But Can They “Technically” Heat A Room?

How much can you really heat up a room with one of these candle heaters?

“Technically,” it’s the same as you can without one.

The first law of thermodynamics states:

The total energy in a system will remain constant.

Burning the candle releases stored chemical energy, converting it to heat and light.

The amount of energy released is the same whether you have clay pots or not.

Adding a candle heater above the flame doesn’t add heat to the room.

Since each tea candle produces only about 30 Watts, you’ll need dozens to heat even a small room.

Sure, you can buy them in bulk – for example, here are 125 of them for only $12.79 (that’s 10 cents each).

But they’ll only last a few hours before you need to replace them.

So why all the fuss about candle heaters? Why are so many people still building them?

Here’s the exciting part.

While a candle heater doesn’t increase the heat the burning candle releases.

It DOES allow you to convert that heat from one transfer mode to another.

Thus, it makes heat much more useful to humans.

Let me explain…

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3 Types Of Heat Transfer

There are three types of heat transfer: convection, conduction, and radiation.

1. Convection

Convection is when a gas or fluid is heated and circulates within a space.

This is heat transfer via moving particles.

This is how most of the heat leaving the candle is transferred.

The rising column of hot air takes the heat and mixes it with the cooler surrounding air.

This process slowly brings the temperature of the room up.

If the room is large and the air is cold, you can imagine how little the effect will be.

2. Thermal Conduction

Conduction happens when a warmer object comes in contact with a cooler one.

Heat is transferred from the warm object to the cold one directly.

In the case of the candle, touching the hot wax would transfer heat to your finger via conduction – ouch!

3. Thermal Radiation

Finally, radiation is the transfer of heat by infrared radiation.

With our light tea candle, there’s a small amount of radiated heat from the burning wick.

However, it’s not an effective means of heating your hands, let alone a room.

There isn’t enough mass in the candle wick to radiate a large amount of heat.

OK, enough science; back to our candle heater –

Why There Candle Heaters Do Work (sort of)

Again, these clay pot heaters will never generate more heat than a candle without clay pots.

Because, well – science.

So what’s going on here? Why are so many people convinced these heaters do work?

The flowerpot heater does not increase the heat; just its usefulness.

Here’s what’s happening…

The candle under the clay pot heats the air rising via convection into the clay pots.

That superheated air is immediately trapped in the clay pots.

This means the candle heat collects and builds before it can dissipate and mix with the cold air in the room.

The trapped hot air heats the cold clay and steel, which acts as a larger thermal mass (a.k.a. an object that stores heat (or heat battery)).

Once the heater core is warmed up, it radiates heat from the outside surface.

This build-up and radiation make it much easier to “feel” the heat on your skin.

Think of how a campfire puts off radiant heat that warms us.

In addition to radiating heat, the heater surface can reach a nice hand-warming temp.

You can wrap your hands around the outer pot and heat them via conduction.

Imagine putting your hands around a hot mug of coffee – a similar idea.

Note: The more candles you use, the shorter time you can keep your hands on the surface.

Lastly – heat from a candle (without clay pots) will go straight up in a thin column to the ceiling – and stays there.

This ceiling heat provides zero benefits to the room’s occupants.

And it certainly provides no radiant heat.

However, when trapped under an inverted clay pot, the clay absorbs every bit of heat from the candle.

And thus, it allows it to radiate from a lower vertical location in the room (instead of at the ceiling).

So again, it’s a ‘heat battery,’ storing the heat near the floor.

Thus, helping more of it stay in a part of the room where it can be more efficient at heating our bodies.

So the bottom line is:

The thermodynamics laws are still valid (as they always will be).

But these laws can also miss the point.

The laws don’t always do a great job of accounting for real-world variables such as radiant heat vs. convection and floor vs. ceiling location.

These heaters aim to make a human feel warmer closer to the floor.

These candle heaters can do just that.

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Clay Pot Heater Upgrades

In my research, I found people who made worthwhile modifications to the original clay pot heater design.

The Hanging Setup Upgrade

This upgrade is more of an aesthetic upgrade and prevents heat damage to your coffee table (or other support structure).

↓ New Flower Pot Heater – Costs Just 4 Cents An Hour…

The Sterno Can Upgrade

One modification was to upgrade the heat source from a tea candle to a Sterno can.

Of course, using 2 or 3 Sterno cans will create A LOT more BTUs than the same number of candles.

So, if you use larger heat sources and larger clay pots, you’ll get more heat.

Enough heat to indeed raise the temperature of a small room.

However, with more BTUs, the costs of this setup go up quickly.

So maybe it makes sense to have the upgraded Sterno can version as a backup for a winter power outage…

You know – just in case.

But with more heat, you have also increased the possibility of a house fire.

Caution – Use At Your Own Risk

Before you begin using a clay pot heater, you must use caution.

They can be extremely dangerous, especially if you let them burn unattended.

Don’t leave them lit if you’re leaving your home; never do so while sleeping.

The paraffin wax will melt if too many candles are put into a tight space.

This wax can then become lit (not just the wick).

A large fire can begin spilling out of the clay pot setup, and the liquid wax may drip down and out.

Candles are a leading cause of house fires, so you should take the same level of precaution.

Open flames are not something to take for granted.

↓ Danger Of Flower Pot Candle Heaters

 

Final Thoughts

I think we can safely say that a small candle heater won’t be heating your house soon.

However, a candle heater is enough to warm up some icy fingers!

And it makes you feel a bit warmer as well.

If you’re going to burn a candle for light anyway, you may as well have a heater core above it to trap the heat, too.

The flowerpot does not increase the amount of heat, just its usefulness.

But for winter emergency heating, you’ll need to upgrade to using Sterno cans or get yourself a kerosene or propane heater.

You should always have one of these as a backup for each family member.

Because these last resort warmth tools are an effective and inexpensive insurance policy.

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