Paraffin lamps and cookers

sarabande

sarabande

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some Cassandra or other on the forum regularly winges about the dangers of paraffin lamps :eek:

oh dear ! Some recent research shows that between 7 and 9% of paraffin (kerosene) consumed by widely used simple wick lamps is converted to carbonaceous particulate matter that is nearly pure black carbon.

So for every 100g of paraffin you burn, you are putting between 7 and 9g of carbon into the air of the cabin and breathing it in.

And oh shucks.... what are candles and night lights commonly made from ? Hmmm, paraffin.


http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1021/es302697h
 
I had 6 hours of 3 x 2 wick parafin lamps burning during an 8 hour power cut at home last week, I doubt they burnt 100g altogether. My small gimballed lamp only holds that amount of fuel at a guess & one fill lasts a whole season. Plus a fair proportion of the carbon emitted will end up on the glass or heat guard if I turn it up a little high or forget to trim the wick.

What disease do you expect me to get, & did all the Victorians die from it too?

I don't really see it being a serious problem, do you? Can I have your old lamps if you are getting rid of them as too dangerous to use?
 
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Used to sail with a friend who had a paraffin lamp in the cabin - we both loved the way it lit the boat. Unfortunately as he was asthmatic we could never use it - but still carried some fuel and a hurricane lamp for emergency anchor light.

Rob.
 
Lamp light

I run oil lamps continually on Pleiades during the winter - two gimballed jgbbies in the main saloon - great on passage. At anchor I also run two Tilley lamps in the doghouse and two T lights in the forward cabin - and sometimes a large cargo oil lamp on the saloon table - around which salty seadogs gather to swap tall tales when the Black Bush ration has been broken out - or else I just talk to myself!
Bush2-1.jpg

Absolutely no adverse effects whatsoever - and I have been running oil lamps thus for more years than I can remember. The key however is that paraffin is completely the wrong stuff - it burns the eyes out of my head in no time at all - urgh! Same goes for outdoor lamp oil and the scented muck, and scented candles. What is safe and smoke/fume free is Indoor Lamp oil. I buy it 300 bottles at a time to save money as some chandlers charge £6 a litre - cheaper to burn fivers!
Indoor lamp oil is the safest oil imaginable, clean, nice to handle, no explosive vapour, and spills are used to polish the table top!

Robin
Pleiades of Birdham
MXWQ5
 
Lightening darkness - Tilley hats good, Tilley lamps urgh!

Correction, dear Forum intelligentsia, an important one - I meant Hurricane Lamps, as shown in the photo. I tried a Tilley lamp onboard once only - what an evil beast - it roared and the heat off it would have melted an iceberg - it was damn close to being jettisoned when it started to splutter and flame so never ever again on my ship. Hurricane lamps in comparison are pussies, housetrained and friendly. Tilley hats on the other hand are great but thats another thread.

Robin
Pleiades of Birdham
MXWQ5
 
The researchers don't seem troubled by the health implications to the poor sods in the Third World, it's another climate change panic:

"Kerosene lamps glow nightly in communities across the developing world. New research shows that these tiny lights have a greater impact than expected on climate (Environ. Sci. Technol., DOI: 10.1021/es302697h). Inefficient lamps burning kerosene release about 270 gigatons of black carbon particulate matter into the atmosphere every year, the researchers estimate. This level of emissions is similar to that of the shipping industry."

However, I have a sneaky feeling that they are not talking about the adjustable burner lamps we know and love:

"They tested simple wick lamps typically found in Uganda and elsewhere that consist of a wick or rope dipped in fuel."

...and I am not distressed enough to be spending 35 bucks to find out.
 
I was going to get a Vapalux lamp but after lots of research I didn't fancy the risk of a flare up in the boat...

A nice oil lamp fixed to the wall would look nice and be useful :)
 
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Pleiades said:
Correction, dear Forum intelligentsia, an important one - I meant Hurricane Lamps, as shown in the photo. I tried a Tilley lamp onboard once only - what an evil beast - it roared and the heat off it would have melted an iceberg - it was damn close to being jettisoned when it started to splutter and flame so never ever again on my ship. Hurricane lamps in comparison are pussies, housetrained and friendly. Tilley hats on the other hand are great but thats another thread.

Robin
Pleiades of Birdham
MXWQ5
Click to expand...
Oh dear, what an admission - there is no better way of heating a confined space that either a Tilley (or an Aladdin) pressure lantern and the light they give out is tremendous.
However they do do need a degree of sympathy and mechanical competence and use lots of methanol to light them.
I was brought up with them on a farm in Devon, during the 16 years we waited for mains electricity.
However one has to be a masochist to consider oil lamps superior in use to electricity.
 
charles_reed said:
However one has to be a masochist to consider oil lamps superior in use to electricity.
Click to expand...

Depends on the purpose you are putting them to :)

If it's a pleasant atmosphere and a bit of heat, oil lamps win hands down.

Add some LEDs for actual illumination and you're sorted :D

Pete
 
If I use electricity I have to run the engine or the batteries go flat. I don't like running the engine unless I need it to go somewhere. Led's help, but my gimballed wall mounted oil lamp with heat sheild just looks so good, gives a lovely cosy light plus it adds a little warmth too at a very low cost.

No contest, oil everytime.
 
So who actually uses paraffin then?
i had some of that no fumes lamp oil but i found it was going out ...maybe it was not fresh but i find paraffin at least burns well but needs lots of ventilation
whats the best no fumes lamp oil to get?
 
Pleiades said:
. . . . What is safe and smoke/fume free is Indoor Lamp oil. I buy it 300 bottles at a time to save money as some chandlers charge £6 a litre . . . . Indoor lamp oil is the safest oil imaginable, clean, nice to handle, no explosive vapour, and spills are used to polish the table top! . . . .
Click to expand...

I am certain that is the lamp oil that I 'discovered' when shopping for paraffin for my Tilly. It was expensive but I am certain I paid a lot less than £6 per litre, possibly £3 or £4 per litre. I will have to check next time I am in the Brecon Beacons where I have a cottage. :rolleyes:
 
Pleiades said:
I run oil lamps continually on Pleiades during the winter - two gimballed jgbbies in the main saloon - great on passage. At anchor I also run two Tilley lamps in the doghouse and two T lights in the forward cabin - and sometimes a large cargo oil lamp on the saloon table - around which salty seadogs gather to swap tall tales when the Black Bush ration has been broken out - or else I just talk to myself!
Bush2-1.jpg
Click to expand...

Now THAT's a cosy cabin. I like - except for the sacrilege on the end of the table..... :D

As for the sooty concern, one could always wear a FFP3D particulate mask while on board. There's lotsofem about!
 
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Lamp oil

Two major suppliers are Barretine and Bartoline, there is another one which is very good -ie no odour and good price, can't remember the make. Most of the chandlers stock either of the two B's but crazy "marine" prices. Go inshore and buy sensibly - should be available at £4 a litre or thereabouts. Sorry about the offensive hard liquor in shot, very lax of me, must hurry to finish that....
And here just to warm Dylan is a photo showing my 8 hour T lights in their little glasshouses keeping the chill off the forward snuggly place.
Graduation389.jpg


Robin
Pleiades of Birdham
MXWQ5
 
Also a paraffin lamp and cooker man. I don't feel that the paraffin smells that much if you keep everything clean and properly adjusted. Mind you, on my tiny wooden boat there's such a mixture of smells that there may be a hint of paraffin in among it. I actually love the smell when you open up on arrival at the boat - but it's probably just a nostalgic reminder of cosy childhood nights - probably all sorts of unhealthy stuff in there.
4925542713_12582151f8.jpg
 
For me, oil lamps using wicks simply don't provide enough light. If I had to use an oil-lamp, I'd certainly get a pressure lamp; there is no comparison in the brightness of the illumination; hurricane lamps are fine for giving an olde-worlde atmosphere, but useless as illumination! And I don't see flare-ups as a problem with pressure lanterns; if you use the correct procedure for lighting them, there should never be a flare-up. The only real snag is that pressure lanterns provide a single illumination source, so shadows are a problem. Overall, several good LEDs installed in the coach-roof provides excellent illumination and uses far less in the way of fuel. All of mine on at once take about 6 watts; that is, half an amp; a few minutes of using the engine would make up for a long evening's use. The Eberspacher uses a LOT more electrical power than that.
 
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