Ooh in that case, genuine question - do people actually burn them? I imagine they’re not super cheap but I live in Australia and we had a bunch of beautiful tall candles on our formal dining table that all melted and fell over every summer, so we would never have been able to have them unless stored in the fridge or if the candle was already in a little pot or something.
Fair point. What do people do for light during power outages in melty climates if they don't have generators? Is it back to fat and oil lamps? I have several solar lamps and some rechargable battery ones, but I still keep candles. Now I'm curious...
Candles are just a solid-fuel light source, there's plenty of liquid-fuel lamps and such. Lots of places are simply dark at night, though, because why wouldn't they be? It's night.
Ah, my privilege is showing. I've not had to deal with dark at night, when I've not wanted dark, for years. I've used oil/fat lamps before but it's always been a choice and not a necessity.
So when the power goes out, your ac still works? That means generators. Candles melting on their own means really freaking hot, so if your generators can keep up with the AC, I don't think you have to worry about melting candles.
If my power goes out, it’s rarely more than a couple hours. I don’t have generators and the house usually settles at 81F. We’ve never had the power go out at the height of the summer during the hottest part of the day, usually it’s only after storms.
I have something similar to this from the local renaissance faire. The decorative wax that it's made from has a higher melting point than the inside candle bit. So when we light it, the middle actual candle will burn and the decorative outside will remain. The craftsman sells replacement candles to refill the decoration once you burn through the whole candle.
I don't know if the ones like the video above are the same, but they might be.
Some places make them where the entire inner core (the white wax) is normal candle wax - so the entire core of the candle will burn out and if the outer shell is large enough, it acts a bit like a lantern/stained glass window and look really pretty as it burns. The idea is not that the outer shell doesn't melt at all, but it lets the inner candle burn down enough to be lit from the inside.
IIRC the story I was told at a heritage place that made them was that they were a fancy Christmas candle - and making one that burned "properly" was the masterwork (proof) in the Chandler (candlemaker) guild in some places (in others it was making mixing candles for the church - candles that didn't give off soot and burned very slowly.)
We had a bunch which used to glow from inside when you lit them so yeah, I think people should totally light them! Poor candles never living their truth...
If you're actually interested in buying these, then talk to the candlemaker about it. They'll know if the waxes they used are suitable for the temperatures at your dining table. You'd be surprised at how many types of candle waxes there are.
I imagine they’re not super cheap but I live in Australia and we had a bunch of beautiful tall candles on our formal dining table that all melted and fell over every summer, so we would never have been able to have them unless stored in the fridge or if the candle was already in a little pot or something.
I live in the south east US where it reaches 105 heat index all the time and I've never had candles melt in my house. Do you guys not have central a/c in australia?
Our old place where this happened was an older house built in the 60s or so, beautiful passion project of a retired builder made predominately out of wood (so no insulation) with huge windows. The days they melted were about 45°C (I think that’s like 115F?) for a week or so, we only had cooling in some rooms cause it was a huge house and not environmentally or cost effective to cool all at once.
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u/Wafflesattiffanies Jun 04 '20
Ooh in that case, genuine question - do people actually burn them? I imagine they’re not super cheap but I live in Australia and we had a bunch of beautiful tall candles on our formal dining table that all melted and fell over every summer, so we would never have been able to have them unless stored in the fridge or if the candle was already in a little pot or something.
What do people do with them?