DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

I don’t know what it is about this thing that so appeals to me. I think it’s the something-for-nothing aspect of it: if you’re burning candles for ambiance anyway, you might as well also heat up the room with them. It’s low-tech, it’s earth-friendly, and very very clever.

47% of your energy bill goes toward heating your home… yet for every degree you turn down the thermostat, you knock ~5% off your bill. This simple device, like compact fluorescent light bulbs, would not only save money, but pay for itself, over and over again.

Let’s do the math. The average US heating bill for 2005 was $989, or $82/month. If you could turn the thermostat down 2 degrees, you’d save about $8 per month. You’d save enough in heating costs to pay for the heater within four months.

Basically it’s a steel and ceramic radiator suspended above a small “jar candle.” It looks like an inverted flower pot, but it acts like a space heater. When in use, the steel bolt in the middle of the nested stack of flower pots heats up to 300+° F.

If you buy one, I recommend the use of beeswax candles. Paraffin candles cost less, but emit toxins like benzene and toluene. If you’re going to go to these lengths to help save the planet, you might as well stick around a few extra years to enjoy it.

(Soy candles are also nontoxic, but burn cooler, which is not what you need when you’re trying to heat your room.)

Yo, Treehugger, check this out.