The DIY Stove Some People Swear By During Power Outages (& Is It Worth Trying?)

There's nothing worse than the power unexpectedly going out right as you're about to cook dinner. This is especially true when you have an electric stove, and no other means to prepare a meal. During severe weather events, it's possible to lose power for weeks, at which point not being able to cook goes from being less of a mild inconvenience to more of a major problem. There's a trending hack going around on social media that features building a makeshift stove out of a muffin tin and tea lights during a power outage. The hack is being shared through Instagram and TikTok videos that demonstrate people successfully boiling water and cooking with this method. However, just because it's on social media doesn't mean it's true, which begs the question: Is it possible to cook over a muffin tin and tea light stove? Both thermal science and anecdotal evidence shared in the comments of these videos indicate that this might not be a genius hack you'll want to know during a power outage.

To create this makeshift stove, all you need to do is place four tea lights in a muffin tin, light them, and place your pot over the lights to cook. Makers of these videos, along with many commenters, report that this hack worked. However, many have also said it didn't work, with one Instagram user even stating that "I did that for Hurricane Beryl and was soon disappointed and hungry." With such mixed results, this probably isn't a method to depend on in a survival situation, and you may want to turn to alternate ways to achieve power outage readiness.

A single tea light puts off about 40 heat watts. For reference, the original Easy-Bake Oven (remember those?) cooked with two 100 watt light bulbs. Theoretically, using four tea lights — as recommended in the TikTok — that each put off 40 heat watts will not be enough heat to cook with. However, in terms of heat watts, five tea lights might be enough to cook with — at least whatever you can cook in an Easy-Bake Oven! However, it's a bit more complicated than that. An Easy-Bake Oven is insulated, whereas the makeshift tea light stove is not. Additionally, you might be hard pressed to cook over this makeshift stove without snuffing out the candles, which need oxygen to stay lit. In terms of heat watts, if you use enough tea light candles you should theoretically be able to have enough heat to cook something, but a muffin tin probably isn't the most appropriate vessel.

The comment sections on these makeshift stove videos report mixed results. One user commented on a TikTok demonstrating this hack that "this helped me get through the Oregon ice storm [with] no power for 12 days." However, another user said they tried to heat water for an hour and the water didn't get past 134 degrees. While this might be a fun trick to try just for the sake of it, we wouldn't recommend depending on this method during an actual power outage. Instead, consider investing in a simple gas camping stove, and add a few backup fuel canisters to your power outage home safety kit.