I recently received an email from Marco Zagaria, a student of the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome who has a very clever idea called Egloo.
Egloo is a candle powered heater that can heat up a room just for ten cents per day.
According to Marco: ‘Egloo is an excellent solution to continuous waste of electricity while heating rooms. A candle-powered heater, Egloo will take advantage of the heat retention capacity of terracotta to provide a cheaper and more ecological energy alternative. Terracotta is a non-metallic, inorganic compound with a high melting point and extraordinary chemicophysical features. Often used for heat-resistant covering, this material helps Egloo gradually distribute the stored energy by thermal radiation.’
‘The major components of Egloo are the base, the grill, and the two domes. The base is an area where the candles are positioned. Once the candles are lit, the domes are warmed up. The domes are supported by metallic grills placed on the base. To ensure optimum functioning, Egloo requires four candles with an average life of five hours. There is a thinner dome on the base that stores heat quickly and conveys the same to the external dome. Warm air stored between the covers results in heating of the room by thermal exchange with the environment. When functioning optimally, Egloo can adequately warm up a 20mq room.’
Egloo can be used simply by positioning the four candles on the base, inserting the grill, and placing the domes on the grills. It takes only five minutes for Egloo to start functioning. Some of the most important features of the product include
- Overall weight of just 1 kg.
- Each refill has a life of 5 hours with less than 10 cent.
- Requires only 5 minutes getting to the right temperature.
- Available in various versions: Natural, Colored and enameled.
Egloo is available in Available in various versions: Natural, Colored and enameled.
Marco has launched an a Indiegogo campaign to collect the funds required for the completion of this project. You can pre-order egloos there! Personally, I think this is a great idea at many levels and wish him all the best in getting this venture off the ground.
The following excellent video illustrates how Egloo works and how it is manufactured. It also shows that Marco has a great sense of humor (at around 2:50 of the video). Marco, thanks for sending this in to us. Good luck!
Please be sure to visit Marco Zagaria’s website – egloo!
Photo Credits
All photos courtesy of Marco Zagaria – All Rights Reserved
Okay, it could be more efficient in the actual fuel-energy conversion, because of the way candles, and pyrolysis actually work. For example, take a coffee can, fill the bottom with candles, and light them. Now, wait for the wax to melt, fill between the Fuller Packed candles, and form a pool on the top.
A candle volatalizes the hydrocarbons, Parrafin Wax into liquid to wick up the wick, vaporise into fuel, and burn. What doesn’t run up the wick vaporises without burning, which should be demonstrated in the coffee can, if you set up the experiment. Now, you have a solid stack of wax, a liquid puddle on top, a trapped layer of parrafin vapor (Or whatever, parrafin isn’t most candles any more, this would work with Tallow) which snuffs out the wicks, and burns at the top, almost completely.
Not to say this is a better design, but the venting around the edges allows convection, to feed the flames with oxygen. Which is good. However, this also carries the unburnt vapor up therough the vent-hole, and out into the room, or tent, or whatever.
Not saying it’s a bad design, but you’re branding Efficiency. It’s a heat-exchanger. And you can always get more efficiency, because you never reach 100%. Heaters come close, because waste energy is almost always Heat.) I really like this design, which isn’t to say it can’t be improved. Even a little flocking, cut rings, or spiral edges into the inside surface like telescope baffles to break up the flow, and increase the surface area for thermal transfer. And maybe some overlap in the bottom vents, so with a twist you cna adjust them for more efficient burn. Like a Weber. This is a lot like an upside-down weber.
If you can, try to local source the candles. Recycle crayons, I’ve stuck a wick in my Bacon Grease can because I was out of candles. (Don’t try this IN your own home.) Because Energy Density has something to do with the carbon footprint of every fuel. If you can, bike or walk to the Beekeepr/Candlemaker’s shop, no fossil fuels went into it. If you ship them, in a box, wrapped in cellophane, packed in a case, stacked on a pallate, shrink-wrapped, and put on a truck, you’re ultimately heating your home with fossil fuels to ship All that mass to the candle factory, then to your door. It would actually be more efficient in terms of BTUs per Barrel to us gas that was shipped to the station in a tanker.
That’s sustainable living, vs “Buying Green.”