Well, at least they work. Fired up 2 cheap WalMart oil lamps.

[El Jefe]

Those olive oil lamps look super easy to make - just some wire bent to hold the wicck and some wick, and fill with the oil to just under the tip of the wick. Viola!

I dunno, olive oil seems kind of heavy for this use, I'd wonder about soot and such.

[O.S.O.K.]

Nope. Burns clean as shit. No soot.

You can use it in your regular oil lamps too - it goes up the wick just fine.

Makes me hungry though smelling it... maybe needs a little garlic in there

[El Jefe]

Nope. Burns clean as shit. No soot.

You can use it in your regular oil lamps too - it goes up the wick just fine.

Makes me hungry though smelling it... maybe needs a little garlic in there

Uh, keep that burning for a few weeks before you decide it burns clean, if it was burning so clean would you have all the odor?

[O.S.O.K.]

Actually, the odor was only when the wick was charring and when I put it out and it made smoke then. While it's burning normally, no soot, no odor, no smoke... check it out for yourself.

[coppertales]

olive oil has been used as lamp oil for the last 5000 years or so......I guess I will have to try it in one of mine.....chris3

[swampdragon]

olive oil has been used as lamp oil for the last 5000 years or so.....

Exactly.

[MOP]

Would the much cheaper vegetable oil work just as well ?

[HDR]

I dunno, olive oil seems kind of heavy for this use, I'd wonder about soot and such.

Olive oil is what the ancients used.

IF the doubtful TEOTWAWKI ever arrives in time everything modern we use will be gone which will make life interesting for the survivors.

[alismith]

I have a bunch of oil lamps and I, mostly, use kerosene in them. They burn fairly clean and if the flame is kept low, they don't give off much odor. I like the smell of kerosene, so, what odor they do give off is fine with me. Kerosene is far cheaper than regular lamp oil and I keep about 5-10 gallons on hand all the time.

As far as cooking goes, you can use a kerosene heater and cook off the top of it. It's ok in the winter, but would be a little hot in the summer to run it. If I had to, I'd just take it out to the porch and cook out there.

I do have regular lamp oil I bought at WallyWorld, but only use it in the oil candles I have.

I don't really have much issue with my power company as they have been very good about preventing power outages. We might get 2-3 outages per year and those are usually of short duration.

[El Laton Caliente]

Well, I've got the camp stove and a half dozen little propane bottles for it. Of course our cooktop and oven are natural gas, so obviously even without electricity I'd probably have use of those, but, ya never know.

I'd think two or three of these lamps would heat a smaller room, but I'd be concerned with the fumes.

Harbor Freight has an adaptor that lets you refill the small 1 lbs bottles from refillable 20-30-40 lbs RV & grill style bottles. You have to chill the small bottles to get them full. 15 to 30 minutes in ice or a freezer will do, chill & repeat fill. $30 to fill a 20 lbs bottle is cheaper than buying 20 1 lbs bottles at $2.59 each.