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Like OldSproket said, defiantly don’t use a “Colemanâ€

[quote="Pops"]Like OldSproket said, defiantly don’t use a “Colemanâ€

Maybe I'm missing something here, but doesn't the oil for lamps come as well from... well, oil? Why do you expect to be able to use oil lamps but not electricity?

Well, “coal oilâ€

Doly wrote:Maybe I'm missing something here, but doesn't the oil for lamps come as well from... well, oil? Why do you expect to be able to use oil lamps but not electricity?

Doly, you are assuming that it will be total catastrophe. It could be but what if it isn't? What if it slowly goes downhill instead of Mad Max all at once? I have a budget now that permits me to get a few things that will make living a wee bit easier while it spirals out of control. The last thing I want is to be a part of the problem by not preparing for ANYTHING. The police and such will have enough on their hands as things deteriorate without people who could have done a little prep work running about trying to get what they think they might need. Besides, where I am I get power outages now and with the big snow storm coming in tonight, an oil lamp could be useful.

I didn't see any discussion of this so far, but what kind of DIY fuels could one come up with to run a lamp. I know the kerosene won't go away all at once, but for the true sustainability arguement, what kind of fuels could one brew up that wouldnt be too volatile like gasoline or ethanol.

Would biodiesel fit the bill? Is there a bio-kerosene option. Soybean oil?

Aladdin says use kerosene. Biodiesel would probably work fine. Anything too viscous won't go up the wick fast enough and the wick will burn down too fast.

Perhaps these lamps are more useful in the country than in the city.

I can take one to a shed where I haven't strung power lines. Many of my neighbors have them for the regular power outages.

I got my hanging Aladdin before I installed the solar electric here and was able to build into the evening in the winter instead of having to stop sawing at 4:30.

PlannerBee wrote:

NeoPeasant wrote:

PlannerBee wrote:What kind of lighting is best inside a home that does not run on electricity. I am particularly interested in the kerosene types but am wondering if certain types use less kerosene that others, are some better shielded from the wind if you needed to go outside with it, etc. Pros and cons. Ideas and links for buying them?

How about wind up lighting other than a flashlight?

You're kidding, right? Any REAL peak oiler knows we will simply all have to go to bed when the sun goes down and arise with the dawn.

You are part of the problem you know that? I know we have a true oil crisis but not one of us really knows how bad it will be starting when. It could just dwindle off and in that case I might like to have a little lighting or NEED it. If you don't have any good ideas then shut up!

Hey plannerbee,
Since you are acquiring things for post peak oil, I suggest you put a sense of humor on your list. Life will be tough, you'll need one. By the way, the "wink" emoticon on the end of my post meant don't take this seriously.

Here's a lighting idea. Get one of those LED lights you wear on your forehead and power it with NiMH batteries recharged from a small solar panel. That way you only have to light where you are looking. Super efficient. Stock spare unused rechargeables, I hear they have quite a long shelf life in their new unused state.
I have some of those and I also have some propane lanterns to use until my propane runs out. Lamps using gas and mantles sure seem to produce a much higher quality light than open flame lighting.

And perhaps a few decades from now, arranging our schedules around the hours of natural daylight may become rather important so we can conserve our energy for more critical things than lighting.

Thank you, NeoPeasant, for clearing that up.

Found this one useful:
Interesting Low E Led Lighting products, from uk site

I am quite new to leds, but I see the wide areas of usage:
I will be buying leds and replacing my old bulbs as soon as possible.

Uses for Led Lighting Outdoor, Garden, Home etc.

It should also be noted that led bulbs are getting brighter while using less watts so pure led lighting may be a very real thing in the future. There was a wired magazine article on led's a year or 2 ago if anyone can find it, it mentioned that they are hoping that by 2010 led bulbs would beat floresent bulbs in light output while being far more efficient.

This article :
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techi ... ting_x.htm

... has been Slashdotted :
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl? ... 0&from=rss

How Cool is This? Your friends at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory have this lovely offer ......




Beginning in 2005, 50 hybrid solar lighting (HSL) systems will be installed, monitored, and evaluated across the United States for one year. Several organizations have already signed up to participate in the field trial program. We invite your organization to consider participating as well.

Lots more great Hybrid Solar Lighting here at Sunlight Direct

Additionally, your friends at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory would like you to check out all the great new items being worked on linked here on the main page sponsored by the United States Department of Energy All very cool and very current for sure!

these are all brilliant ideas, i just worry about the scalability and amount of time needed to get all these things in place. i think thats the problem. if peak oil happens before 2010 - which seems likely - we dont have enough time to roll out all these alternatives. i'd be very confident we could if peak oil doesnt happen until 2030, but i dont think a couple of years is enough.

id love to have solar powered lights, it would be great.

Yeah these will replace my gasoline burning lights I have in my house.

Shouldn't this be in the other forum...

maybe

http://peakoil.com/forum6.html

???

Wow! A mere 35 years after we landed on the moon and already we have developed the advanced technology needed to use light from the sun in daytime!

It was only ridiculously cheap energy for the last 100 years that allowed us to rely almost exclusively on artificial light to light our buildings in the middle of the day.

NeoPeasant wrote:Wow! A mere 35 years after we landed on the moon and already we have developed the advanced technology needed to use light from the sun in daytime!
It was only ridiculously cheap energy for the last 100 years that allowed us to rely almost exclusively on artificial light to light our buildings in the middle of the day.

YES! What you are saying is what BiGG business of yore did with cheap available energy and all the while we moved this tiny little country right smack to the top-of-the-food-chain! Wait till ya see what else we are currently doing that’s going to keep US there also! Very exciting stuff coming for sure unless of course, you are just one of those boring ol’ habitual complainers I suppose! Did we have fiber optic technology like this 35 years ago? Humm…

BitterSweetCrude wrote:Yeah these will replace my gasoline burning lights I have in my house.

This is a good idea - 20% of electricity use in the US is used in lighting, mainly incandescent bulbs. A more achievable action would be to ban the manufacture and sale of incandescents in favour of compact fluorescents using a third the power - there's a 10% electricity demand reduction - about the same as all the US nuclear power plants and it could be achieved within three years.

BiGG : Everything that consummes less energy to do the same result is great. There's no doubt about it.

But don't forget that we got to feed the growth monster. All the money not spoiled in lighting will be spoiled in more lighting or something else.
Actually, we worry about peak oil because of growth, as we could worry about peak gas, water or metals.

Not even nuclear fusion could allow us to grow for more than one century. Instead of looking for a new technology, we need to look for a new way of life. Doesn't necessary means that we must get back to caverns, btw...