Jump to content

Candle flame temperature


Ana

Recommended Posts

I’m not sure there a definitive answer to this. At the hottest part of the wick the flame where the flame is blue the temp can be hundreds of degrees. 
 

A great burn and HT requires a balance of many variables including fuel type, container, container material, fragrance aroma chemicals, ambient conditions, etc. 

 

the goal is to balance fuel consumption with the right wick type and size to fully consume and combust the fuel with little to no carbon leftover (soot/mushroom formation).  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here are some interesting article by Chris Woodford on candle flames and heat.  

image.png.e99cf53fa69d1c519792460da5fa8697.png

Here are some approximate temperatures for the different parts of a candle and its flame. Note that the exact temperatures vary quite a bit depending on all kinds of different factors, notably the type of wax from which the candle is made but also the ambient (air) temperature, and how much oxygen is present. Please don't take these values as absolutely definitive ones that apply in all cases—they're just a rough guide.

 

1.   Wick: 400°C (750°F).

2.   Blue/white outer edge of the flame (and also the blue cone underneath flame where the oxygen enters): 1400°C (2550°F).

3.   Yellow central region of the brightest part of the flame: 1200°C (2190°F).

4.   Dark brown/red inner part of the flame: 1000°C (1830°F).

5.   Red/orange inner part of the flame: 800°C (1470°F).

6.   Body of the candle: 40–50°C (104–122°F).

7.   Melted pool of wax on top of the candle: 60°C (140°F).

 

How does heat travel?

 

One thing you've probably noticed about heat is that it doesn't generally stay where you put it. Hot things get colder, cold things get hotter, and—given enough time—most things eventually end up the same temperature. How come?

There's a basic law of physics called the second law of thermodynamics and it says, essentially, that cups of coffee always go cold and ice creams always melt: heat flows from hot things toward cold ones and never the other way around. You never see coffee boiling all by itself or ice creams getting colder on sunny days! The second law of thermodynamics is also responsible for the painful fuel bills that drop through your letterbox several times a year. In short: the hotter you make your home and the colder it is outside, the more heat you're going to lose. To reduce that problem, you need to understand the three different ways in which heat can travel: called conduction, convection, and radiation. Sometimes you'll see these referred to as three forms of heat transfer.

 

 

Conduction

Conduction is how heat flows between two solid objects that are at different temperatures and touching one another (or between two parts of the same solid object if they're at different temperatures). Walk on a stone floor in your bare feet and it feels cold because heat flows rapidly out of your body into the floor by conduction. Stir a saucepan of soup with a metal spoon and you'll soon have to find a wooden one instead: heat travels rapidly along the spoon by conduction from the hot soup into your fingers.

 

 

Convection

image.png.5892f80591752e9787e896736e7647a1.png

Convection is the main way heat flows through liquids and gases. Put a pan of cold, liquid soup on your stove and switch on the heat. The soup in the bottom of the pan, closest to the heat, warms up quickly and becomes less dense (lighter) than the cold soup above. The warmer soup rises upward and colder soup up above it falls down to take its place. Pretty soon you've got a circulation of heat running through the pan, a bit like an invisible heat conveyor, with warming, rising soup and cooling, falling soup. Gradually, the whole pan heats up. Convection is also one of the ways our homes heat up when we turn on the heating. Air warms up above the heaters and rises into the air, pushing cold air down from the ceiling. Before long, there's a circulation going on that gradually warms up the entire room.

 

Radiation

Radiation is the third major way in which heat travels. Conduction carries heat through solids; convection carries heat through liquids and gases; but radiation can carry heat through empty space—even through a vacuum. We know that much simply because we're alive: almost everything we do on Earth is powered by solar radiation beamed toward our planet from the Sun through the howling empty darkness of space. But there's plenty of heat radiation on Earth too. Sit near a crackling log fire and you'll feel heat radiating outward and burning your cheeks. You're not in contact with the fire, so the heat's not coming to you by conduction and, if you're outside, convection probably isn't carrying much toward you either. Instead, all the heat you feel travels by radiation—in straight lines, at the speed of light—carried by a type of electromagnetism called infrared radiation.

 

 

Most candle system should not burn off FOs easily even though it happens to us once in a while.  If it does, then I am suspecting that it is the FO(or FO and wax combo) that is causing problem not the candle system.  Unless I am using super weird wick like Cottonwood wick, which would burn off every FOs after 20 minutes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...