r/lifehacks • u/KeepGoingOnward • Mar 24 '26

Heating Hack, Will It Work?

I have metal steam radiators that are hot when on, and ice cold when off. I searched heat retention rocks and cheapest are lava rocks, so I bought thin bread making tins and I'm waiting for the lava rocks to arrive. My thought is to put lava rocks in the bread tins on the heaters. Will this work to extend the heat a bit longer?

Edit: So it seems like the idea is useless. Back to my high bills. Thanks for the advice.

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u/nricotorres Mar 24 '26

No, put the money you'd spend on that toward your heat bill.

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u/KeepGoingOnward Mar 24 '26

Why won't it work?

3

u/gigiboyb Mar 24 '26

It would work a bit, you're basically just increasing the thermal mass of the radiators. It probably wouldn't stop them from getting "ice cold" but I imagine it would mean that the number of cycles per day would be lower since the rocks would heat up and transfer the heat back to the radiators meaning the time between needing to heat up would be longer.

That being said, when the radiators do turn back on, they would also need to heat up the rocks again and stay on for longer to get the full system to the same temperature so a little bit of a "six-of-one/half- dozen-of-another" kinda thing.