| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| Treacodactyl |
Veg oil lampIs it possible to use veg oil in a lamp to light or heat a cold frame? I would like to use it to heat my small smoker and also wonder if it would be possible to make a lamp one day. |
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| Bernie66 |
http://cunnan.sca.org.au/wiki/Oil_lamps
and http://www.thefarm.org/charities/i4at/lib2/oillamp.htm would indicate that it is possible |
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| Penny |
Would you need to have special wicks for this do you think? Where do you get wicks from nowadays? Our wonderful hardware store closed a couple of years ago, and have no idea where to get something like that now 
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| Bernie66 |
no idea, sorry. I just googled | ||
| gil |
Am I right in thinking that lamps that burned seal oil  (in the Western and Northen Isles) had wicks made of rushes ?
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| Penny |
You mean B&Q don't sell them  
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| Treacodactyl |
Thanks for the links Birnie, they suggest the lamps could actually be very safe.
From the first like they say "apparently cotton mop heads work as well" in the http://cunnan.sca.org.au/wiki/Making_oil_lamps page. Another thing to add to my list... |
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| Lozzie |
Tibetans use clarified yak's butter in their devotional lamps, as do people in India burning divas. Both have wicks of plain cotton.
Romans used to burn olive oil. Seems unduly wasteful to me!! I'd rather cook with it 
Tibetan butter lamps - 
Indian divas - |
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| tahir |
And beech mast oil used to be used in the UK as a lamp oil | ||
| sally_in_wales |
I use olive oil in my replica Roman oil lamps, and thick candle wick as the wick. Some types of fungus (I think its one of the bracket ones) are reputed to be good lamp wicks. Tallow/dripping will work, though it can be smoky | ||
| James |
I’ve been trying to find the best way of re-using vegetable oil for heating my greenhouse.
My first attempt was to use a standard paraffin lamp with wick. This burned for a short while (a few minutes), didn’t make much heat, then went out. The problem is the viscosity of veg oil at low temperatures. Remeber- your dealing with temperatures a few degrees above freezing, even with the burner going. At these temperatures, pomace olive oil is almost solid and rape seed oil is very thick I then started looking more seriously at this, and there’s another problem- even if you manage to get it to wick, vegetable oil will burn with a very yellow flame, which will deposit a thin oily soot on the plants. There are two ways around this. The first looks positively dangerous and is called a Babington burner. Its based on the principle that any oil will burn well if put into aerosol form. Although the design is extremely simpe, you need an air compressor, so I ruled this out (although they look fantastic fun!). more info here: http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/oilburners.html The second type (the type I'm trying to make at the mo..) is based on pre-heating the oil, rather like a primus stove. This greatly reduce the viscosity of the oil, so it can pass through a fine nozzle and burn directly. So far, I’m using 4mm OD brass pipe as the heat exchanger, coiled to form a cylinder about 50 mm diameter, and perhaps a similar height. The input to the coil is at the base, the output from the coil is at the top. This then passed over the top of the coil (across the diameter) and then drops down the inside of the coil. At the base, it turns through 360 deg to point back up towards the top of the coil (were the pipe has just crossed over directly above it). The end of the pipe is pinched to form a flat nozzle. Below the coil, a shallow tray will be primed with methylated spirit, to pre-heat the oil in the system. The reservoir for the oil will by above the whole thing (at a distance), so the burner will be fed by gravity. Things I haven’t figured out yet- 1- I think my design wont work: I’ll need to incorporate some wider diameter pipe at the base (maybe micro-bore?), to allow for viscosity while the oil is cold. So now I’m faced with joining micro-bore to 4mm brass pipe, in a location that will get quite hot (ideas?…) 2- the design of the outer casing needs some thinking about- possibly use a normal tin-can as the outer “shroud”, with a cut-off smaller tin can base (like a Campbell’s soup size) as the meths burner. The coiled heat exchanger would site above this and be attached to the outer shroud (solder?) 3- The air regulation will require some thought- ideally I’d like to get lots of air directly to the flame to allow for a blue burning flame- less soot, more heat. I’ve considered pre-heating the air somehow with another layer of tin can shroud, but these thoughts are pipe dreams at the moment…. keep it simple. Unfortunately, my greenhouse has recently had a minimum temperature of 10 centigrade, so the heater idea has been shelved in favour of trying the keep up with sowing and potting on- I don’t think I’ll be needing it until late November. |
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| Bugs |
Gosh James, that's a lot of thinking. I never knew about stoves that worked that way  We use a paraffin heater (I'll probably be told it's not paraffin, I'm not allowed near anything sharp or burny for good reason) briefly in the spring to protect delicat-ish hardening off plants so it might be useful for that, though obviously you won't be able to (or rather as you say need to) try out your theories about warming the oil.
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| Silas |
You can use just about any oil, the problems are a) the smell, and b) the smoke and c) the constant wick trimming.
We bought a repro roman oil lamp that was suposed to use olive oil. It lit fine and buned well, but the smoke and smell was far too much. I suppose the romans had little option though.... |
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| Treacodactyl |
Please keep us informed of progress James, if you get a working burner it would make a fantastic article.
My little smoker just needs a flame underneath a tin can supported on atwo bricks. This area heats up quite well so I may be able to get away with a simple design. No need for me to worry about smell or soot as the smoker is outside. If I get something to work I'll post up details. |