Burning Olive Oil In Lamps

It s quite amazing that olive oil will burn at all.

Burning olive oil in lamps.

Whereas kerosene and lamp oil will ignite and spread the flame. My own experiment consumed 2 ounces 1 8 cup of olive oil in 5 hours. The key to burning olive oil is to keep the wick saturated at all times. 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 romans and other ancients regularly burned olive oil in their lamps so the concept is sound. If the lamp is tipped the oil will smother the flame in an olive oil lamp. The light from an olive oil lamp is bright enough to read by. 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.

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. The thickness of the oil affects the capillary action so soaking the wick in oil before lighting it works best. The concept of burning oil from vegetables olive oil in the home rather than petroleum based kerosene seems more appealing less toxic and safer. This calculates out to about 15 cents per hour depending on how inexpensive you can find pure olive oil.

At one point i bought a natural oil that could burn in conventional oil lamps. Unlike kerosene or paraffin oil there are no fumes to burn. Lid for jar. It s as bright as a kerosene lamp with a warm yellow flame.

Olive oil works a treat in oil lamps but that is an expensive fuel. Burning an olive oil lamp. Use wicks with a large weave or even tightly twisted strips of cotton cloth.