We live in a 150 year old farmhouse in Western New York. Winters can and do get pretty darn cold here. Unfortunately, we do not have the best heating system for the house. There is an oil-fueled furnace in the basement and because of the design of the house; the heat never seems to get to the second floor. In addition, there are actually no heating ducts to the far side of the second floor. Really! We do have a small wood burning stove, which takes the chill out of the first floor but the heat never makes it up the stairs to the second floor.

So what do we do? We leave and vacation in warm places during the winter, seriously. Nevertheless, when we are home, we wear sweaters, slippers and close-off some rooms to help isolate the heat. Like anything, you make do and get used to it. I have to say the “power surges” from the changes my body is going through helps too.

In 2014, I came across a video on YouTube by a man who has come up with a low cost way to heat small areas. This sounded fantastic, as I really miss using my upstairs office during the winter. Dylan Winter is a cameraman, video journalist, blogger and boater. He developed or at least shared his heating method online. Of course, I just had to try it.

All you need is:

1 bread loaf pan

2 terra cotta flowerpots – one being at least 2 inches bigger than the other

4 tea lights

1 small piece of foil or the foil left over from a used tea light (you might as well reuse it)

Really, that’s all you need and it will heat your small room for perhaps 8 hours. All you have to do is put the 4 tea lights in the bread loaf pan, light them, cover them with the smaller upside-down terra cotta flowerpot; then cover the hole with the piece of foil. Next, cover the first pot with the second larger terra cotta flowerpot, upside down of course, leave the hole of the bigger flowerpot uncovered.

This simple system works because the candles produce gases full of heated particles that are captured and channeled through the pots. The hot gas particles are lighter than the air, so they rise up through the top pot into the colder area. This causes the cold air to fall into the warm areas and create a convection current; then heat is transferred from one pot to another, and then out of the hole. The best part is – it really works and is easy to put together.

We started with the room at 52.7°F, notice the outside temperature is 16°F, yep it’s cold!

We tried it in our upstairs office over the weekend and it worked beautifully! The office is 12 x 14 feet. It has 2 external walls with windows on both of them. It gets rather cold up there. It took perhaps an hour to really feel any difference in the room. I took pictures of the thermometer before and 2 hours after our “little stove” was in action. We started with the room at 52.7°F (I told you get’s cold up there) and notice it was 16°F outside as well. In 45 minutes, the room temperature went up to 59°F and it’s was still only 19.9°F outside, the pots were getting nice and warm. After 2 hours, it went up to 64.6°F, not bad considering the rest of the house hovers around 62°F. I bet if the room were smaller, it would have warmed up quite a more.

After about 45 minutes, it warms up to 59°F

Now it’s a toasty 64.6°F

What do you do keep warm in the winter? Please share and I will continue to share.