A popular trend online shows people using terracotta clay pot “heaters” in an attempt to save money on heating their homes. The homemade device consists of an upside-down terracotta pot propped up over household candles.
The question is: Are clay pot heaters a safe way to heat a room? No, clay pot heaters are not a safe way to heat a room.
A clay pot heater may make you feel warmer if you sit close to it, but experts say it won’t do much to warm the room as a whole and it’s also a serious fire risk.
Typically, when you burn a candle, the heat from the candle rises up to the ceiling.
“The heat released from chemically burning candle wax will not change with the clay pot being present or not, so it should have no effect on the total energy released,” Scott Schiffres, Ph.D., associate mechanical engineering professor at Binghamton University explained.