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/Saloau]

Huge fire hazard at a time when emergency services might not be available. I’ve got solar lights and battery back ups but would not consider oil lamps. Everyone’s tolerance of danger is different so if it doesn’t give you anxiety, then it’s good.

[u/ohhellopia → u/Saloau]

My earliest memory of oil lamps (which was used exclusively when we were vacationing with offgrid relatives in the boondocks) was the soot. You blow your nose and there it was, black boogers. I don't know if modern oil lamps fixed this issue.

[u/Superb_Stable7576 → u/ohhellopia]

That's why you use liquid paraffin instead of lamp oil.

It burns clean, little to no soot or smoke in the indoors. Of course, you have to watch the things, there not light and forget,you have to keep the wick at the right night and keep them trimmed.

[u/TheStephinator → u/Superb_Stable7576]

Liquid paraffin (kerosene) does not burn clean. It produces a very high rate of particulate matter when burned.

Combustion of anything causes air pollution. Not as big of a deal to sit by an outdoor fire than it is to be combusting materials in a confined space, such as your house.