kerosene 2 of 2

KEROSENE 2

As we have discussed oh so many times before, post-apocalypse lighting can be easy, cheap and long lasting with LED’s.  They are great, and relatively fool-proof ( with the assumption you always stockpile by the half dozen since the ChiComs really, honest injun do NOT care for Running Imperial Dog Honkies and try to kill us by selling us defective crap [ it is only business to many, not personal, as they try to kill their fellow countrymen also, but I for one find no solace in that ] at every opportunity ).

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And while everyone should have a LOT of LED’s ( hell, even a flashlight from the Dollar Tree or the garden walkway lights from the Wal-Mart garden section are both better than a candle, most of the time.  I lived with candles for a couple of weeks.  You cannot imagine how they blow when they are your sole illumination ), and chargers, you might be thinking you need kerosene for a much lower tech illumination.  I’m not considering it, since this isn’t farming land and there is no way in hell I can ever replace the fuel ( as you possibly could, with bio-diesel ). 

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In my case, it is better to just accept I’ll be going from high tech to lowest tech when the time comes.  But kerosene can be a viable option for many of you.  If so, your first stop is the Kerosene Survival Dude over at EndTimesReport dot com.

He has all the equipment and information you need.  There are comparison tests of lamps and their light output ( surprisingly, the $20 Mason Jar lamp is a much better return on investment than the gold standard Aladdin ) and wicks for sale and etcetera.  He also has a section on making your own candle wicks from a solution of salt and Borax powder in water soaking cotton string.  That might be useful information even if you pass on kerosene.

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So, a little more background on kerosene.  Obviously, the lamps aren’t all that pricey like they used to be ( yes, we all whine about Chinese quality.  Yet without them survivalism would be a heck of a lot more expensive.  If you’d like a flavor on that, read the 80’s Dean Ing non-fiction for how crappy the improvised equipment was-which in his defense was only noted in hindsight ).  And fuel is no more expensive than gasoline.  Yes, it is more per gallon, but just as with diesel or propane, the cost per BTU delivered is all about the same.  That is why propane is cheaper per gallon-it delivers less energy.  Like wheat or even gold, you really don’t pay much past the cost of production ( excluding taxes, obviously ).

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If it is winter and you burn your kerosene lantern eight hours a day ( winter lighting is how I rate my solar capacity year round ), a gallon of fuel will last you a month.  That is certainly NOT bad at all.  Especially if the lamp helps heat the room ( as with all fire, ventilation and safe handling around combustibles is assumed ).  Some lanterns will burn as low as ¼ ounce per hour but the standard seems to be about ½ ounce an hour, a variety of lamps averaged.  Go with the half ounce figure to be safe.  You might be able to buy five gallon steel containers of the fuel, if you have an industrial solvents supplier, or some gas stations even carry it.

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( our small town has one station with a kerosene pump, but it is the only real town in the county and there are potentially thousands of customers that heat with kerosene off grid.  Here, the only options off-grid if you don’t go hours out of the way to cut wood are propane, pellets or kerosene ).  If you are paying over twice what gasoline costs, if that, you are getting ripped off.  Shop around.  Even if you don’t illuminate with kerosene, or heat ( a safer option than pressurized propane tanks, but not cheaper due to the heater cost differential ), there is the cooking option.  They sell a $70 ( both the Kerosene Dude and Amazon ) pressurized cooker.  You pump up the thing like you would a Coleman lantern and it uses kerosene as a cooking fuel.  With no wick. 

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Heck, I’d even considering that, to replace propane, except I have all my invested infrastructure in propane.  But it is a nice option ( the propane camp stove costs half the kerosene, but then you must also buy a pressure regulator hose for another $20, so the two compare closely in price ).  If you are lighting and heating ( at least as a supplement, as I imagine a whole house heater-just like as with propane-would be ruinous.  They are back-up heaters ) with kerosene then it just makes sense to cook with it also. 

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Now, aside from the safety and compact fuel storage, why else would you want to invest in kerosene?  If you can make your own bio-diesel.  Then you don’t have to worry about buying any LED’s except for a few where applicable ( headlamp, huge antiaircraft style lamps, a low output nightlight such as for a bathroom ).  Just primarily use kerosene you’ve stored, Day One of the apocalypse, and transition into making your own fuel.  Other than a stock of lamps ( glass breaks, assume the brass fittings will break ), you just need lamp wick.

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Wicks are about a buck a foot, bought in a bulk roll.  And a wick, in theory, will only burn an inch per gallon of fuel ( if trimmed properly ).  Now, I stocked kerosene lamps for Y2K.  The LED’s at that time were VERY weak and VERY expensive ( only great compared to regular incandescent flashlights ).  I didn’t care for them even though everything was cheap.  But obviously, they can be an attractive option.  I’d have loved to have known about the kerosene cooker back then, as I was going to rely on the gasoline powered cooker.  Great for salvaging fuel, but probably rather dangerous and only useable outdoors.  And propane lighting is VERY wasteful, even if really bright.  Outside LED’s, kerosene is your best option.

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