DIY Copper And Sand Heater | No Electricity Needed For Greenhouse Heat

For anyone doubting a terracotta pot and a candle.... I live in Maine. I went ALL winter last wonter with ZERO heat or power. February proves to throw us -20F nights some with some without wind chill factored in. I made it through the winter burning candles i found in dumpsters of big box stores under those clay pots. 2 pots each with a 2-3 wick candle would raise the temp by about 15 degrees in each room. YOU might not think thats a big deal but when its 20 below zero outside and dipping into the 20s-30s above zero inside and you can raise that to 35-45 above zero it makes a huge dent in safety and morale. Learned a few tricks over the year and now am getting ready to battle winter #2 without power or heat. Keep on keepin on peeps❤

Easier way of providing heat for the greenhouse. Build a good sized open topped box and place under the potting bench. Fill with fresh manure, water well and cover with plastic sheeting..check that it doesn't dry out. As the manure decays it will let off enough heat to keep the greenhouse well above freezing. When the manure has fished working, dig it into the greenhouse beds or garden to fertilize the plants.

The total energy dissipated is the same as the candle alone. The only difference is that the sand is a mass able to accumulate the energy and release it slowly.

Just recently overnighted in our new to us used trailer. We don't have electricity at our property yet but here's what I did to keep us warm overnight. I set the gas stove front burner on low and placed an old fashioned large clay brick over top of burner. This heated the whole brick up and it produced radiant heat. Mind you I kept the ceiling vent open to let in oxygen and we were fine. The next morning we had errands to do and we shut the stove down. About an hour or so later when we came back, that brick was still warm to the touch. I had remembered the terracotta room heaters that were the rage on YouTube a number of years ago and it worked beautifully. Radiant heat is a beautiful thing.

THANK YOU ... I've been wanting to find a way to heat my 5x5 little green house that I built myself two summers ago and I wanted to find a way to do a self watering system... I'm getting older and climbing the 13 steps going to my small yard can hurt some days... You have been giving me such great ideas... I wish I could send you a picture of my green house to show you what I built and see if you have any more ideas that could help me ..

I'm a new subscriber so I haven't followed any of your other videos. When I built my Earth Oven, I used any old glass bottles I could find, filled them with sand, capped/corked & layered them in the base of the earth oven (thick layer of sand 1st, then bottles of sand, more sand, bottles of sand and top off last layer of bottles with thick layer of sand). I found using heavier/thicker glass bottles worked better. (I got free empty liquor bottles from a local bar or from friends that drink). Arrange them like a wagon wheel spoke and put your candle in the center as the hub. I'm going to try your experiment but use a bit larger bucket. If you have room you could use a galvanized garbage can (maybe in a pinch) or a 55-gallon metal drum with a locking lid (for storage purposes) or even a 5-gallon galvanized bucket.using this method. If you wanted gentle circulation you could get a small heat radiated/activated fan (can get on Amazon & uses no electricity) and build a bracket with some sort of metal for it to sit on above the candle. Adust the fan to point UP since heat rises and it would keep all the heat from staying in the ceiling. I have these on my wood-burning heater/stove and they work great to keep the heated air circulating but don't run fast enough that would cause it to "cool" the air movement. The fan slows down as the heat diminishes and shuts off when no heat so it doesn't run to move COLD air). Think how we use ceiling fans on reverse for the winter to pull cool air up to circulate the heated air down to the living space/greenhouse. If you want to know the temp of the sand as it heats get a thermometer with a probe to put in the sand. I honestly don't see the strip of copper or aluminum strips heating the sand as much as you may think. I feel it is the heat from the candle in the sand and would hold more heat if you add Glass bottles filled with sand. I am by no means an expert on this kind of heating but learned from experience. Another CHEAP alternative for plants under a tarp or heavy plastic I have tried is to use strands of old Christmas Tree lights (not LED's). Each 100 bulb strand puts out 40 watts of heat. Need more heat, add more lights (if you have electricity). You can even do this outside with a domed tent made of plastic or a tarp. I did this my 1st year experimenting to keep veggies plants producing all winter in my greenhouse. It worked. I grow veggies year-round in my greenhouse. I'm growing sweet potatoes & sugar cane in mine now and they need HEAT to grow. But I do live in grow zone 8b so we don't have extremely cold winters. I'm also growing Chayote Squash (Mirlitons) outside under a heavily tarped tent with an electric oil radiator heater sdded when it is going to freeze. I'm in the process of building a 2nd larger greenhouse/high tunnel combo that will be heated with a wood burning stove & smoke will be vented outside. You can also use bales of hay around the outside of your greenhouse to help insulate it from the cold air. I'm a 66 yr old senior on a fixed income so I have to use what I have or find cheap alternatives that will work so I'm constantly experimenting.

Thank u for showing us new ways to keep our homes/greenhouses warm.

Wow.... This is a really cool idea!!!! Keeping it in mind as I am homeless and don't have electric 🥰 Thank you❣️

We replaced our battery/solar electric oil heater in our RV with two similar to this a couple years ago. Saved $ and more even heat 👍.

Interesting info. One thing to keep in mind regarding Crisco candles is the material of the can itself. Most now are made of cardboard coated with foil on the inside. Definitely not fireproof. Please be careful 🙂 ~ Lisa

Amazing! I can see myself using this set up in my home. You can out a regular 12” taper candle down in the shortening instead of 4 wicks, might work better than fooling with those wicks,

This is excellent. Some of the other forms of candle heaters are also excellent but could be easily knocked over, The weight of the sand should alleviate that concern with this one. A possibility to increase efficiency may be to run, say 4, smaller copper strips, from the main copper strip, down into the candle the candle itself. As the wick burns down the smaller strips will help capture and transfer heat. The shortening will probably become liquid but that shouldn't change the burn characteristics. You'd probably want to use a metal can for the candle though.....and this would in turn dissipate even more energy into the sand.

Thanks for the info. Very interesting concept.  I have often wondered if one could devise a way of harvesting the heat generated from a compost bin. Decades ago, I was composting grass clippings in the backyard of my rental. To my shock, I found that the center of the pile in the bin had turned to ash, due to the composting process and inadequate watering. I had no doubt that one could have cooked a meal in it, but didn't think of that at the time. Today, I don't have room for a compost bin nor the capacity to develop some sort of heat exchanger for one, but I really like sand pail idea and will try one in the garage. Thanks.

Great idea but would have loved to have seen some recorded data on this. Outside temps, inside temps, and hourly readings of the bucket at about 1/2 inch from the bottom, midway, etc.. so that you could see the progression from evening to overnight. Done in 2 places: the floor in the middle, and on a table to understand if placement matters or inhibits. I'm a data guy. Again, great idea. Also, you may want to cover in a "rocket-stove" like manner. Cover it with a clay pot lined with aluminum/copper to allow for increased storage but also reflective back into the sand to assist in increasing storage. Just some thoughts. Thanks for sharing!!!!

Maybe combine the 72 hour candle and this style heater. Tip: use several candles to get it super hot then put them out except 1 or 2 of them. To keep the heat coming. Relight as needed!😮

I’m sharing this with my family, especially for plants.

Adding water in the sand will bring the heat into the center of the sand faster. I believe it is changing the flame energy into Radiant heat that make the difference. Heating objects in the room (Radiant heat energy) and not the air makes things feel warmer and way cheaper).

This is very interesting and sensible making a heat sink within the large bucket which will radiate slowly. ...so, let me suggest what this would work perfectly for. .... pump house....when my jet pump was replaced with a submersible about 15 yrs ago, the guy never replaced the light bulb which i had been using in winters. We don't have many freezings so i had not rushed to get it fixed. And then came a cold spell and i set up a kerosene lantern and it worked well. But the oil chamber is only enough for about a day and kerosene is expensive and nasty. This will be perfect because the heat sink will radiate slowly and make a more even and sustained temp and i like the idea of vegetable oil and a longer burning candle which your other video can show me to do. I think this is one of the best diy ideas for me that I've seen. Very unique. I'll look up the Finland thing too because those folk are smart, handy and creative people. Thank you.

I enjoyed your video, and marveled at the experts below. I am going to follow your example of maximizing the 80-100 BTU's. Thank you for your time.

Congratulations for such a so good explanation! Many thanks from Portugal.😀