On Friday, October 22, 2010 at 10:16:03 PM UTC-4, 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.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
.

I have a small 10 foot by 8 foot partially insulated shed as my man cave and during the winter keep it above freezing in the winter using small 1/4 inch round wick oil lamps. So if its 32 outside one lamp will keep it about 42 inside. if it goes down to 10 outside two lamps will keep it just above freezing. My estimate based on each small lamp using 3 oz of kerosene per day is each lamp puts out just about 40 watts per hour of heat or 132 btu per hour.

A typical human at rest puts out pending body size from 60 to 80 watts an hour. If I am in the shed with the doors closed and the one lamp burning the internal temp rises pretty quickly by about 15 degrees from 40 to 55 or so in half an hour so the real world math adds up.

If I ever finish insulating the sides and floor better with the ceiling peak vents and soffet vents completely separated from the interior space I am sure the one lamp would provide more like a 20 degree F increase over outside temps.

R.