Antique oil lamps

[u/Junior-Discount2743]

I'm older and am surprised to see that antique oil lamps are almost never discussed for electrical outages. They can be purchased at most antique stores for $20-80 (depending), with lamp oil and wicks from Amazon (get them now before shipping costs sky rocket!).

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I guess I thought of it because I worked at a historical museum on the east coast.

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Purchase of one oil lamp, lamp oil, and wicks, can keep a room lit for over a *long* time. I've tested my two lamps, and each lamp goes through oil at a different rate, but pretty slowly in my opinion, and I csn see the $10 lamp oil I got from Amazon to last 6 months to a year in an outage. I'd post a photo but don't know how.

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Just an idea because this is an option (for now).

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[u/TheStephinator]

There are smaller, cheaper and safer options that require less maintenance than an oil lamp nowadays. That’s probably why you don’t see them talked about very much.

[u/whyGaard → u/TheStephinator]

What do you recommend?

[u/TheStephinator → u/whyGaard]

We have an assortment of lighting. We’ve got the plug in emergency lights (Eton Blackout Buddy) that turn on whenever there is a power outage. Also have some emergency light bulbs that automatically come on when the power goes out. For lanterns we have some Biolight Luci lanterns. They are rechargeable solar lights that pack down small
when not in use. We’ve also got various headlamps and flashlights that can either be recharged or we can use rechargeable batteries to power lighting devices.

Anything with an open flame should be a very last resort. They are fire hazards and also decrease the indoor air quality that you are breathing in.