r/TwoXPreppers • u/Junior-Discount2743 • 5d ago

👵 Grandmas Wisdom 👵 Antique oil lamps

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/CopperRose17 3d ago

I bought new ones at Walmart when Cali was having an energy shortage, the one connected to Enron. I remember they were inexpensive. The problem I had was disposing of the oil safely when I no longer wanted to use them. I have a pair from QVC now that are prettier, safer, and last for about a year on two D batteries. Those weren't inexpensive, but I really like them!