Articles

Electronic Candles Reduce Oil Dependency

There are approximately 324,000 restaurants is the US that use table candles, and with each restaurant having the average of 40 tables each, that’s over10 million candles. Then add in the consumer market that use wax products and you have lot of wax being consumed. And where does all that wax come from, if you guessed bees you’d be wrong. It comes from crude oil, the same oil we use for our cars and homes. Paraffin wax is a solid or liquid and is the primary fuel for candles; the liquid type is what you see in restaurants in those disposable containers.

With our desire and mandate to reduce dependence on oil, everyone is looking for alternatives, and even with candles there is an answer, electronic candles. These are designed to look just like a real flame but use no fossil fuel and no flame; they instead use a LED (light emitting diode) or incandescent lamp instead. This technology application is relatively new and growing rapidly as evidenced in the growth of LED flashlights. Electronic candle products began to hit the market in earnest about two years ago and only now acceptance is beginning to grow based on two factors, cost of crude oil and new fire code mandates to reduce the risk of fire from open flames. The fire code change stems from the nightclub fire publicity and heightened awareness of fire safety. Open flames in some areas are now being restricted or banned entirely for use in restaurants and catering halls. The cruise line industry is keenly aware of the danger and rarely use open flame lighting on the ships.

The Hospitality industry in the last few years have been moving more toward an environmentally friendly posture by adapting processes and procedures to reduce operating waste and utilizing recycling even more. In doing so the operation costs can be significantly reduced along with marketing value to the consumer through a Green Certification award listings. By eliminating the use of disposable fuel holders, solid waste and use of petrol fuels are both reduced along with elimination of heat energy produced by flame.

One barrel of oil produces about 2.5 – 3 gallons of liquid paraffin wax, and the average restaurant burns candles on the average of 7 hrs/day, 7 days a week and using .25 oz. of wax per hour per candle. The total amount of crude oil required for the US per day calculates as follows:

With a 5% yield of refined paraffin from crude that’s almost 3,543,740 gallons of oil or 64,432 barrels of oil required per day. Staggering numbers demonstrated here should wake up some proponents of oil conservation and help promote products like these, although the fire marshals eventually may have a larger influence.

Electronic candles also save greatly on operating costs compared to wax candles, on the average about $100 savings per year, per table, including the purchase cost. With the cost saving alone you have to wonder why electronic candles are not more widely used. Well it’s the simple awareness factor, but that’s changing very quickly as the products become more widely accepted and understood.

For consumer use of candles in the home, safety becomes the number one issue over the cost saving of fuel. A recent safety report from the National Fire Safety Association states candles fires are up by 300% percent from 1990 due to increased use of candles. In 2001, candle fires in the home were responsible for an estimated 190 civilian deaths, 1,450 civilian injuries and $265 million in property damage.
Electronic candles are also gaining popularity in the home as well and are generally the same quality as the commercial version, just packaged in smaller quantities. Jay Cullimore president of MoodLyte Technologies comments, “If we add sales of consumer use of electronic candles, there would be an even larger reduction in oil. Add this with the benefits of fire safety and these products are really a winner all around. Also they work great as emergency lighting during our hurricane season in Florida” Mr. Cullimore went on to say “most of these products are so realistic if you didn’t look in side the holder you would never know they were not a real flame”.

The crude oil savings may be even larger in the consumer candle market since more than 1 billion pounds of wax are used in producing the candles sold each year in the U.S.

MoodLyte™ Technologies develops and manufactures electronic tabletop and architectural lighting products. The product line includes Electronic table lighting products that are battery operated, rechargeable, and remote controlled as well as custom system integration and applications.

Additional information

Liquid paraffin has a number of names, including nujol, mineral spirits, adepsine oil, alboline, glymol, liquid paraffin, paraffin oil, saxol, or USP mineral oil.

Paraffin wax, which is classified as a natural wax, is the most common wax used in candlemaking, and can be said to ultimately come from plant life.
In order to protect themselves from adverse weather conditions plants produce a layer of wax on their leaves and stems. Material from dead plants 100-700 million years ago accumulated in large quantities and eventually became buried beneath the surface of the earth. After a long period of time, forces of heat and pressure turned the slowly decaying plant material into crude oil, otherwise known as petroleum. Because of the nature of waxes, being inert and water repellent, they were unaffected by the decomposition of the plant material and remained intact, suspended within the crude oil.

Petroleum companies "harvest" the crude oil and process it. They refine the oil, separating the different properties into Gasoline, Kerosene, Lubrication oil, and many other products. In many cases, the wax in the petroleum is considered undesirable and is refined out. The refinery will process the wax into a clean, clear liquid, or as a solid milky white block, and make it available to companies who may have a use for it.

The refined wax is called paraffin, which comes from the Latin "parum = few or without" and "affinis = connection or attraction (affinity)". Basically there are few substances that will chemically react with or bind to this type of wax. Crude oils may contain from 2 to 15% paraffin, which may solidify at temperature between 60 to -20C.

References

• http://firechief.com/news/candle-fires-up987676/
• http://www.candles.org/about_facts.html