Kerosene Lanterns For Preppers

Kerosene lanterns are an inexpensive, reliable prep for a power outage / grid down situation, but they do have some quirks.

We shouldn’t confuse a kerosene lantern with a kerosene light… lanterns are meant for both indoor and oudoor use, whereas lights are designed for indoor use only.

While kerosene lights are decorative (and fun) I personally only use lanterns in my preps, because you can use them outside in strong winds, and they are much safer than a lamp if you knock it over. 

Here’s a podcast that Spice and I did while hanging out at the cabin at The Place, sitting there in the glow of a couple of kerosene lanterns and talking about them and other things as well.

Modern kerosene lanterns

Modern kerosene lanterns looks have changed very little since this style of lighting became popular in the 1800’s. There’s not really much to reinvent on one. 

Often called “hurricane lanterns” because they won’t easily blow out, they are available at places like the big-box store with the name that starts with “W” for under $7. The lanterns pictured here are a couple of those. They come with an extra wick and are basically ready to light. 

The important parts of a lantern are the frame/fuel tank, the wick, the wick controller and the glass lantern globe.

The style that are often sold in discount, farm & ranch and hardware stores are generally what’s known as “cold-blast”. That’s because fresh air is drawn in from holes around the top of the globe, fed down through the empty metal side tubes on the lantern’s frame, and fed in to feed the flame. This gives more oxygen than older “hot-blast” designs, and you get cleaner combustion with them (more light, less smoke).

Fuel

Hurricane lanterns can be fueled by several different options, including lamp oil, kerosene substitutes like the Klean Heat brand of fuel, as well as Citronella-scented lamp oil (use this only outside!). 

We use high quality non-dyed “water clear” kerosene. 

Why Kerosene lanterns instead of battery or solar?

The best part about kerosene for preppers is the LONG shelf life of the fuel.

Unlike gasoline which, when non-stabilized, has less than 2 years storage life (much left if it is exposed to air), and diesel, which has a much-shorter shelf life with the new formations than in the past (Formerly, 2-years was a rule-of-thumb, now it’s less than 1 year).

Kerosene has a storage life (if kept in an opaque, air-tight container has, in my experience, a shelf life of more than 5 years. 

When I was in high school, my neighbor raised goats, and he lit the back buildings with hurricane lamps. I remember him pulling out this old can of kerosene that was more than a decade old. I asked him if he was seriously going to use the stuff and he said “sure, I’ve been using old cans of this for years.” He lit the lantern and it worked just fine.

The key is, like anything, keeping the oxygen out of the container and making sure it is air tight.

Kerosene can be attacked by organism that can foul it, but keeping it in darkness will solve that problem.

How much do kerosene lanterns put out?

Not as much as you would think, but… if the house is completely dark otherwise, it’s enough to see by. You can even read by the light they put out if you sit right next to them.

With the type of lanterns that we have (not counting the huge box of antique lamps I have in storage for “just in case), the goal is to set the wick at about 1/16th of an inch for a good amount of smoke-free light. You can adjust the wick longer than that and it does give more light, but it also starts to smoke which quickly covers your globe in smoke, so doing that defeats your purpose. 

While “not all that much light” may seem like a downside, there are situations where just the opposite would be true. For example, in a longer-term grid-down situation, the last thing you would want is to be the only house within 4 blocks that’s lit up like the Fourth of July… 

These lanterns put out a lot more light than a candle does, but nobody would call them bright.

Spooky cool

Hurricane lanterns were often used in mines and cave explorations back in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. There are some caves that offer lantern-light tours, where the only light in the cave is that which the lantern puts of.

I’ve never been on one of these tours, so I don’t know if they use electric lanterns now (I suspect they do) but I’ve been in a cave that was only lit by a lantern, and let me tell you, it was spooky cool. 

Yes, I know this has absolutely nothing to do with prepping, but… there it is 🙂

There is a down side, of course…

Using kerosene in hurricane lanterns indoors gives of an odor. The better the kerosene you use, the less the lamps will smell.

Additionally, like any type of lamp that uses fire, there’s always the risk of the lamp tipping over, or breaking, causing a fire. It’s always important if you are using fire in ANY way inside your house that you have an ABC rated fire extinguisher at hand, and that EVERYBODY knows how to use it safely. 

Lamp oil works great if you plan on using your lanterns during “good times”, it smells less (and yes, the odor of kerosene really bothers some people). Just make sure you don’t use lamp oil that contains paraffin (some does), that will eventually foul your wicks.

I wouldn’t sleep with one on, because if they start having incomplete combustion then dangerous gasses could start collecting in the area your lanterns are in. We recommend always having a carbon monoxide detector in your house… in fact, we think it’s better to have MULTIPLE carbon monoxide and fire detectors in every house (whether you use kerosene or not).

Another downside is storage of the fuel and the lamps. It’s not a big deal, really, unless you have children. Obviously, lanterns filled with combustible fuel are not something you want around young children, so that’s a consideration.

One more practical note, you should only fill kerosene lanterns outside or in a carefully controlled environment (for example, a large pan big enough to catch every single drop of a spill). The last thing that you want is a flammable liquid soaking into your carpet, floors, etc. We fill ours outside, on the rocks of our parking area, away from the cabin.

Wrapping it up

Kerosene stores well, and lanterns are dirt cheap and extremely reliable.

To me, having some on hand are a prepping no-brainer… but make sure you have that fire extinguisher around, and make sure it’s not sitting right next to a lamp (it needs to be away from any potential fire source).