Burning Olive Oil In Lamps

Everywhere i see online says i cannot burn olive oil or other cooking oils in an oil lamp as petroleum lamps are made for the oil to travel up a higher distance to burn while olive oil only wants to travel up 1 inch.

Burning olive oil in lamps.

Burning an olive oil lamp. At one point i bought a natural oil that could burn in conventional oil lamps. My own experiment consumed 2 ounces 1 8 cup of olive oil in 5 hours. It s as bright as a kerosene lamp with a warm yellow flame.

This calculates out to about 15 cents per hour depending on how inexpensive you can find pure olive oil. Use wicks with a large weave or even tightly twisted strips of cotton cloth. It s quite amazing that olive oil will burn at all. You can also make a wick from a cotton swab.

The light from an olive oil lamp is bright enough to read by. Purpose made lamps and oil need to be watched for the country of origin as several countries manufacturing the oil are using lead in wicks and to make the oil burn smoother and last longer you don t want to be burning that in your house. The concept of burning oil from vegetables olive oil in the home rather than petroleum based kerosene seems more appealing less toxic and safer. Lid for jar.

The romans and other ancients regularly burned olive oil in their lamps so the concept is sound. Needle nose pliers. Unlike kerosene or paraffin oil there are no fumes to burn. If the lamp is tipped the oil will smother the flame in an olive oil lamp.

For those who are curious the cost of burning olive oil in this lamp will depend on wick size flame size and corresponding oil consumption. The key to burning olive oil is to keep the wick saturated at all times. Whereas kerosene and lamp oil will ignite and spread the flame.