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Jeff Thies Jeff Thies is offline
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Default OT - Heat output of oil lamp

On 10/22/2010 11:24 PM, wrote:
On Fri, 22 Oct 2010 22:16:03 -0400, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:

Wick type oil or "kerosene" lamps from Walmart or other places. They
put out some heat. But, how much?

Any idea how to figure out the BTU per hour? My thought is that they
burn about an ounce of oil an hour. More or less. So, on the web some
where has to be the heat content of lamp oil. Figure it out from
there.

If it's enough, then an oil lamp or two or more. Could be used for
heat when the power is off, or the propane tank is empty.

A few votive candles will keep you from freezing to death.


I had a friend who lived in the woods for a while. On a cold night he
would light a few candles.


Even Tea
Lights, but they don't last as long.
Lamp oil is about 45Mj/kg. or roughly 43000 BTU per Kg
With a Specific Gravity of .82, 1Kg of Kero/lamp oil is .roughly a
quart - so figure 43000/32 = roughly 95 BTU/hour if your calculations
and mine are both close to real-world.
I believe a single wick candle is roughly 50 BTU, so I suspect your
consumption figure is a bit low, unless you are talking a pretty small
Kero lamp (1/4" wick, more or less?)

I just checked Vermont oil lamps, and they claim thair 1/2" wick lamps
consume roughly 1/2 ounce per hour - so a 1" wick should burn an ounce
an hour. Either my numbers for a candle are off or the heat value of
wax is a lot higher than kero - which is POSSIBLE, but liquid parrafin
puts out less LIGHT than kero in a wick lamp, so?????


I think, perhaps, one too many conversions in the calculations
somewhere. Ed's figure looks about right. In the neighborhood of 1000
BTUs/Hr for a standard oil lamp. Perhaps a bit less.

It may not be worth cleaning up the smoke and smudge.

Jeff