Last winter I played around with boiling water atop a Candlelier - using a titanium cup. Took about 20 minutes, as I recall. Will see if I can find my posts on that.

Found my boiling-water-atop-a-Candelier experiment results - in a "Creating Heat Inside A Stuck Vehicle" thread from late-2010. Here it is:


I was curious how quickly water would heat up on top of a "Candlelier" (3-candle candle lantern) so I put a cup of water in a Snow Peak titanium cup and placed it on top of a Candlelier.

Within 10 minutes the one cup of water was warm. Within 20 minutes the water was cocoa-toasty. After 40 minutes the water was not boiling but it was painful to dip a finger in and tiny bubbles were forming on the bottom of the cup -- plenty hot enough for mixing with Mountain House freeze-dried meals.

With these candles still burning I emptied out the water, cooled the cup and started over with 2 cups of water. This time I put the pot set's "frying pan" over the cup as a lid. The time-line is about the same -- cocoa-toasty after 20 minutes, Mt. House-ready in 40 minutes (water not quite boiling but bubbles forming). Around 50 minutes it was boiling.

I've been carrying a single-candle candle lantern but this makes me think the 3-candle is worth carrying in the car. For this experiment I used the standard 9-hour UCO candles that come in packages of three ($3) and that are nearly burned out.

Candlelier (these are $29 at Campmor)
http://www.rei.com/product/624320

REI and Campmor also carry a Beeswax version of the candles that last 12-15 hours. They are three times as expensive ($10 for three) but in addition to lasting significantly longer, they generate less smoke. Seems worthwhile for a stranded car situation. Light + heat in one package that you can use inside the vehicle.

Beeswax UCO candles
http://www.rei.com/product/737330

I just ordered three packs of the Beeswax candles, from Amazon, for $9.84 each and free shipping with the Prime membership. Should receive them in two days and they'll be going in the car along with a Candlelier that's been sitting in a box. I went Candlelier-crazy in the 90s after a power outage.

Fortunately, camp gear lasts if stored well and sometimes sees much more use later on in a different application. I'd bought them for ambience.

The titanium cookset I'm using:
http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/41366?feat=506856-GN2

My problem with candles is that invariably they get hot and melt down into shapeless, hard to use blobs. Too bad, because I really like candle lanterns - great illumination around camp. Of course, car interiors get pretty hot in Arizona in the summer, and just about as hot in California....

My in car stove is a Trangia cook set. I can get water boiling in about four minutes.

tea candles in an Altoids tin or a 3 wick monolithic paraffin cast in something like a shoe polish tin would solve most of the melting and extinguishing problem...the Altoids would have the advantage of a reflector ... cut a chunk off a block of paraffin and refuel...

a Gerber baby food jar makes a good mini hurricane lamp... wick and approx 1/2 filled

of course it's hard to beat a can of Sterno and a small triangular wind screen pot stand

I've decided to stick with the three-wick candle. With all the tools and materials we have in the office I'd be embarrassed if I couldn't build a stand for it pretty quickly. I did pick up a Sierra Cup to put in my office BIB.

In my line of work, I don't even have a desk. I can keep some stuff in a refrigerator but that's it.

Jeanette Isabelle

Fortunately I work in a food distribution center. Unfortunately it's all electric. If by some freak set of circumstances we have to overnight it and power is unaffected, we're good.

Jeanette Isabelle

Do you have any real estate on your desk top, Chaos? I've got a pen/pencil holder on mine that's wrapped with duct tape. (Red rather than silver so a little camoflauged.) I keep a drinking straw, letter opener (a.k.a pry bar), a couple of pencils (a.k.a fire tinder), keychain LED, mini bic, little tube of advil, etc. in there. It takes up very little (about 3 inches wide and 6 inches high) space but is a good little resource pot.

A full SS water bottle and a little LED lantern are hiding behind my monitor, along with a little mason jar candle that decoys as an air freshener.

I realize I'm thinking outside the drawer, so my apologies for going off-topic.

I don't view this as off-topic.

Anything I keep on my desk is subject to being "borrowed" by coworkers. Almost without exception they are good-hearted people would would really mean to bring stuff back.

I could grab a straw or three easily enough for a "regular" drawer. I've never seen a letter opener that was worth much as a pry bar (maybe you have a better one) but I'm going to start experimenting with small and light pry bars in my laptop bag. We have a ton of pencils here; I could grab a couple and stick it in my top drawer. I'm set for flashlights. My laptop bag FAK and the big FAK in our kitchen both have Advil. Being male, having a candle on my desk could cause me some problems in our office culture . My water bottle stays with me.

Over the weekend one of my daughters had an event in the city, and I took the opportunity to bring in the bulk of the gear rather than doing it a bit at a time on the train.

Letter opener