Build a tea light oven as a heater: useful or dangerous?

Gas prices are rising and a cold, expensive winter is forecast. There are now countless tips for saving energy and alternatives to heating. One of them is the tea light oven, which you can assemble yourself. Is tealight heating a sensible alternative for the winter or just a waste of time or even dangerous?

With a tea light oven you build your own “mini heater” from tea lights and several flower pots. The assembly is relatively easy with the right assembly instructions.

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Build a tea light oven as a heater yourself: assembly instructions and materials

The heat of the tea lights is absorbed by the different pot layers. The clay pots heat up and you have a heat source, the temperatures of up to 70 degrees should deliver. For a simple tea light oven you need the following:

• 2 clay plant pots, whereby the smaller pot must fit into the larger one (diameter approx. 20 and 15 cm) – see Obi
• 1 saucer for the large pot (diameter approx. 22 cm)
• 1 threaded piece (length approx. 30 cm) – view at Toom
• 1 acorn nut
• 5 hex nuts
• 6 building discs (view at Globus)
• 2 tea lights

A pot would be enough for the warming effect. The second flower pot is primarily intended for to avoid burns.

Since you have to pierce the pots, you should also have a drill and masonry drill ready. If you have the right utensils, follow these instructions:

1. Drill a hole in the middle of the coaster.
2. pushes the Threaded rod through below the hole and fasten it on both sides with a building washer and nut.
3. Around 19 cm above the coaster you fix the next mother together with the building disc.
4. Bet on it smaller pot upside down and also fastens it with nut and washer.
5. This also fixes the large pot on the construct and complete the construction of your own tea light oven with the cap nut.

Now you can place both tea lights on the coaster. The two lights should be at least 5 cm apart. You should not use more lights at the same time, as the tea light oven can get too hot. The stove itself does not generate its own heat, but only stores the heat of the tea lights.

A notice: Place the stove in a windless place and on a stable, non-combustible surface. In the immediate vicinity of at least 1.5 meters there should be no easily combustible material such as fabric. If the tea lights are burning, the tea light oven should always be supervised. The tea lights must not be too close together to avoid tea light burning.

You can find more easy-to-follow instructions on the websites of the DIY stores Obi (as PDF) and Globus. If you prefer to watch the guides rather than read them, this YouTube post has a good description:

Is a tea light oven useful or dangerous?

A tea light oven is easy and quick to build yourself. The question remains whether the DIY creation is suitable as a helper for the winter. Naturally, this cannot replace gas heating. After all, two small tea lights cannot provide the heat of a proper heater. You only feel the heat when you are in the immediate vicinity of the tea light oven.

In order to have it warm enough in the apartment, you have to set up several such stoves. For burning but oxygen is consumed, which you only by airing back into your own four walls. This means that the cold gets into the house.

With each additional tea light oven increases also the risk of fire. Burning the oil-based paraffin that tealights are made of creates temperatures of up to 250 degrees. If tea lights are placed too close together, the resulting gases can ignite. If the tea lights catch fire, they should not be extinguished with water, as this will only spread the fire even more. Depending on the spread of the fire, only a fire extinguishing spray will help effectively against tea light fires. This article by SWR shows how dangerous the small, cozy lights can be:

Next to it is a tea light oven not environmentally friendly. After all, the tea lights burned out quite quickly and you have to keep putting up new lights while the bowls create waste.

Other heating alternatives are explained in the video:

Conclusion on the DIY tea light oven

The do-it-yourself oven is suitable as a beautiful decoration and nice pastime for dull autumn and winter days. But it is not a substitute for a heaterg to survive the cold days of the year. Rather, the stove can be damaged by incorrect installation or too many tea lights in the apartment become a danger. The heat output itself is negligible.

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