I have now made five videos that have crossed the viral threashold - that is more than a million hits each one

over 30 million hits on youtube - one video along had over 18 million.  The woman from the telegraph described me as serial viral maker

Needless to say these films generate a revenue stream of zilch.

None of them about sailing of course.

The Potheadforkandle has now crossed the two million hits mark. Well nock me down with a feather.

I am no longer surprised at the range of reactions people are prepared to post online.

Some people take variations on the line of "interesting idea".

A few come back  and tell you how it worked for them

The plain crazy or rude ones usually come from behind the screen of anonymity.

The potheadforkandle journey has been most interesting

"This is really dangerous! The candle wax will melt, if you knock it over it will flash ignite. Also, these candles are toxic and should have ventilation which negates the little heat it makes. PLEASE STOP PROMOTING THIS FIRE/HEALTH HAZARD. And yes, you can be held legally responsible for promoting this - especially if a child does it."

The knockers come from three main camps

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The terminally terrified

First of all there are the people who are frightened of their own shadows

they include people who tell you that you will die if you do this

- setting fire to the house is their first fear

I am assuming that these people never use candles on birthday cakes or cook over gas and have never been anyware near a house with a fireplace or gas heater

one has to assume that they never ride a bike or go in a car or an aeroplane either

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Co Phobes

"Keep in mind that, this device, regardless of its "efficiency", also  BURNS O2 and gives CO which is poisonous. In a closed small room for more than 8 hours it can cause faint and consequently death!!!"

They appear to think that four candles will generate enough CO to kill you - clearly these people have never had a long gentle candlelit bath or shag in their lives.

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Won't heat my house

"Doesn't work in my 3000sq ft house though."

Some others will tell you that this will never heat  their 5,000 square foot house in Canada in February. the idea is therefore utter nonsense.  Of course they write before reading anything on the page such as the fact that it for heating a small room.

others tell you that this is not cost effective because they would have to include the cost of driving to Ikea in their Mercedes to buy the candles.

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Patronising

"Instructions for poor people froma guy reading Boat Owner."

others suggest that it must be a con because I am rich enough to own a boat - or that they have spotted the computer equipment in the room or that I have a small roomer than theirs.

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Crypto Science

" 1 tealight produces around 250 BTU/h (warmth per hour). A normal heater produces between 10000 and 40000 BTU/h to keep a room warm. Conclusion: to get the same amount of heat as a normal heater, you would need between 40 and 160 tealights. In other words: put your normal heater on 2.5% of the maximum and you heat your room for only 10 cents a day! Cheaper than candles yeeeeeee"

Then we have the crypto scientists who carefully work out the energy in a tea light and the price of electricity in their part of the world and tell you that it will never work to heat a room.  Of course they would never have a go for themselves to see if four candles have no impact on the room at all.

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Pot deniers

"how is it even possible that the pots do anything to increase the heat? Candle flames put out the same ammount of heat weather they are covered or not"

Finally we have the flowerpot deniers - they will tell you that the flower pots have no impact on the heating efficiency of the device at all. Of course if this were true then designing a heating system for a house would be just a case of getting one thing hot somewhere and letting the rest take care of itself.  The seem to think that convection currents can be left to their own devices and how you manage them makes no difference at all.

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the interesting thing is that it would be very easy for the gainsayers to find out a bit more or even read the blurb with the video

best idea is to just hit the keyboard first and then engage the brain afterwards.

Fortunately sailors are much more considerate about thinking things through before hitting the keyboard with a stream vituperation and information free advice.

Dylan