A tailor made terracotta dome called Egloo has recently been introduced. The gadget is used to collect heat from burning candles and then it dissipates the heat into the room at a slower pace. The gadget’s operational cost turns out to be 10 cents per day and the process of heat dissipation carries on even after the candles have stopped burning.
Launched by Marco Zagaria (student at Academy of Fine Arts in Rome) on Indiegogo, Egloo is available for a $60 pledge; $80 if you want to choose between the available colors (red, blue, black and beige) or glazed versions for $90-110. The goal of $30,000 has already been achieved by the campaign and it’s on its way to a $100,000.
Zagaria explained the working of the product in the campaign’s ‘How It Works’ by telling readers that the composition of Egloo accounts for a base, grill and 2 domes as it’s four basic components. The candle is positioned on the base and once the candle is lit, it heats the domes up. A metallic grill has been incorporated into the base that provides support to the domes. The grill also lets the air in, which is quite important for candles to undergo combustion. To achieve best efficiency, 4 candles should be used at a time and in 5 hours, (the average duration) this will allow the assembly to warm up a 20mq environment.
Zagaria further said, “The thinner dome, placed centrally on the base, stores a high rate of heat, that is conveyed to the external dome; the dome’s air intake facilitate the outgoing of the warm air stored between the covers, allowing thermal exchange with the environment.”
Remember all those videos going viral about how to make a terracotta flowerpot on your own? The people responded with skepticism towards those products, saying that it’s not good enough and is expensive as compared to things available on the market. It lacked performance as well, though it was believed to be better than using candles. The danger of naked flames was also pointed out by a few.
Nonetheless, with three weeks left, Zagaria’s campaign is doing pretty well, as they have received triple the support they were expecting. Check out the video below for more details:
