Being the cheap people that we are, we went to the locally famous fall rummage sale at the Sts. Peter and Paul School in Nauvoo and bought some old pots and a candle in a jar. This weekend, Grampa got around to building it. The instructions said to surround the candle with some jars and put the pots on them, but if you want to stablize it more, to put the whole contraption in a pot. Since we don't have much room and things get knocked down easily here anyway, we decided to do that.
It took a long time for it to heat up. We lit it around 6 in the evening and the pots were just starting to warm up at 10 when we went to bed. We have it in the TV room. We are currently being cheap (as usual) and heating the house by canning, drying foods, etc. so at night the house is getting pretty cool. We shut the TV room door and have been heating it with the candle heater. That room is running about 4 degrees warmer than the rest of the house. The approximate square footage is about 150 feet.
Grampa Tom and my boy think it would probably heat better if the clay pots were elevated above the cooking pot. We're thinking about putting several inches of gravel in the cooking pot to elevate them. Grampa also has an idea for some "legs" to set the whole thing in to stablize it.
It's a work in progress. After Grampa Tom gets out of the fields, he will tinker with it more. He's thinking he may make some that look better and sell them at the markets, so be in anticipation!
God Bless You All!
~Grama Sue
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