DIY INFRARED HEATER | No Electricity Needed For Greenhouse Heat

Nifty! Some thoughts: 1. As you are using sand as your mass, you don't need to go to the expense of a cast iron pot. You could use a stainless steel stock pot for the bottom. 2. For the top, you could pick up a second, smaller stainless steel stock pot that fits inside the sleeve and also fill that with sand. (You want a stock pot for top, as they are fairly tall, and it can reach down to the top of the mesh. 3. You don't need to cut the mesh to size. You can just fold and crimp the two ends together over and over until it fits. That will make for a very strong seam and the whole thing will still be very cylindrical. 4. The fill hole needs to be (mostly) sealed while in use. A ball bearing or marble just slightly larger than the hole would be perfect, though a can lid would also work. 5. The extra carbon felt can be packed inside the inner can so that, if the whole thing tips over, fuel won't spill out so easily. 6. The edges of the shell should be folded back on themselves repeatedly to make it stiffer--and thus safer--and to open it up so more heat can be radiated. 7. The top and bottom pots need to be rigidly connected together so the whole thing can't fall apart and create a fire hazard, as bumping the shell hard enough could easily make it buckle. A couple of pieces of steel pipe that are notched on the ends would work as spacers, and you could drill a hole at each end perpendicular to the notch for a u-bolts to go through to hold the handle to the pipe. That would make it pretty solid, I would think. Cheers!

Safety Note:Rubbing alcohol gives of noxious fumes. You'll want to use Denatured alcohol or camp fuel for interior applications! In case of emergency; R.A.can be used... ensure adequate ventilation! Also, from experience: place a coin/ stone etc over the fill hole to reduce flare up and fuel consumption.

Check at a restaurant supply store for a larger pot. It might be less expensive than you think. That was good. You put several heater concepts together into a nice build.

On my second build, I used a steel dog bowl as the lid and filled it with sand. The sand was almost molten in no time compared to the first build where I had the sand in the bottom. It becomes warm at the bottom but nothing compared to sand at the top for obvious reasons. Also bigger mantle, more infrared heat. A few drops of Olbas Oil or Menthol in the bottom with water for your bad chest and sinuses 👍

I would use one of those heavy gauge round galvanized steel water troughs used for livestock as a base for the sand battery. They come in many sizes from 23 gal and up. Might be a bit cheaper than cast iron. Thanks for this vid, it gave me some ideas for heating. 👍

Suggestion: cooking oil or any oil works great and burns forever, also no fumes! You might need more space between the bottom inner & outer cans, oil does not throw off fumes nearly at the extreme rate of alcohol, the forever wick will need more room to draw.. ✌🏻🌎✌🏻

Large chimney brick and a larger kerosene lantern from Lehman supply company in kindred Ohio. My grandmother would fill the lantern and put it on the lowest level and place it inside the chimney brick. And that was enough to heat the entire greenhouse during the winter. The place was toasty the lantern would need to be filled like ever 20 hrs but worth every penny. She also did it in the chicken coop as well. With a block on top and holes drilled into the sides of the block. And bird spikes on the block to keep them from roosting on the very warm top.

Great video: added thoughts i Know cans are cheap and inexpensive but one way i have done this is: 1. use a stainless steel pot like many have said for the base filled with sand. 2. Use aluminum duct pipe from home depot. Got mine for $15. (doing this ensures that there's one central piece. 3. Cut Two comparments into the aluminum sheeting with wire snips, one for a small coffee can with toilet paper acting as the wick filled with denatured alcohol 4. Second cut is actually two on the back slightly above where the can is so that a small 9v fan can be mounted. 5. lastly the top of the pipe acts as an exhaust, and it burns for hours. I WILL be modifying mine to use your carbon felt. I appreciate when a community comes together, I like when we can help each other and share our expirences and ideas. Your inspiring video could save lives and help keep people alive under extreme cold conditions. best to be prepared because we never know. Gratitude.

Robert Murray Smith on his T-N-T (thinking and tinkering) channel has done amazing work with these heaters and sand batteries. I think a large stainless steel Dutch oven like a Revereware style from the thrift store would be a good base and lid. A section of single wall interior stove pipe for the reflector. Drill and bolt the reflector to the base pot. If you can't get carbon felt, you can use an old sock, but it would be a consumable wick. I would also take the stainless steel screen and place the seam over a pipe and hammer it flat so it won't come apart. Overall, it's a good basic design.

The first thing I tried when I heard about sand batteries was heating a pot full of it from underneath with, I think 8 candles. The temperature in my shed was about 6 centigrade, a couple of hours later I blew the candles out. After 15 minutes the sand was almost cold. Sand batteries can work really well but they need to be heated to a very high temperature in a well insulated container and the release of the heat needs to be regulated.

Great idea. The only problem I see is safety. The whole tower is resting in sand with nothing fastened to anything. I would recommend attaching a spoke style rebar base as well as fastening the internal components together. Greenhouses can get a lot of traffic, and to me, currently, this looks unsafe.

In place of the cast iron pot, could you look at semi-truck or trailer brake drums from a salvage yard? It would be a super heavy-duty alternative. I have used them for wood stoves and fire pits. Salute !!! I love your incredible heater.

Very nice, unique setup. I like it! I would steer away from rubbing alcohol, especially at the ratio you are burning (looks like 70%??). It contains glycerin and water. What happens is the alcohol burns off and leaves you with a glycerin/water mixture in the can. Eventually, your wick will be saturated with water and burn very inefficiently. Best to use straight alcohols (methanol, ethanol, higher grade isopropyl). Methanol only has one carbon atom per molecule and will be much safer to burn, too. Less chance to create carbon monoxide and soot. Ethanol has two and isopropyl has three.

really cool. i dont know how much room you have in your hot house but you could get some of those blue plastic storage 55 gal drums paint them black and fill them 3/4 the way with water the thermal mass of the heat collected in the day would radiate though the night. i still really like your design.

Thank you for your project and taking the time to explain everything

Nice combination of ideas, great build

I love your channel! I subscribed about a week ago, nice to see another decent human being with an interest and passion for innovation, learning and teaching. Bravo sir

Great video. May I suggest you use fondue fuel. Its refined for indoor use. I use fondue fuel in my Trangia Spirit Burner that I use when I go camping. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us. Cheers

I saw the basic workings of this on the Robert Murray-Smith videos but really like the sand addition you wisely installed. He has one of the accents we Texans find amusing but you are easier to follow and give a good explanation of it all. He recently did a video on 2173 Making Carbon Cloth.

Thanks.Still learning something every day.