Burning Olive Oil In Lamps

Diy olive oil lamp what you ll need.

Burning olive oil in lamps.

The key to burning olive oil is to keep the wick saturated at all times. It s quite amazing that olive oil will burn at all. The romans and other ancients regularly burned olive oil in their lamps so the concept is sound. It s as bright as a kerosene lamp with a warm yellow flame.

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. Unlike kerosene or paraffin oil there are no fumes to burn. You can also make a wick from a cotton swab. If the lamp is tipped the oil will smother the flame in an olive oil lamp.

Whereas kerosene and lamp oil will ignite and spread the flame. The light from an olive oil lamp is bright enough to read by. 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.

Needle nose pliers. 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 thickness of the oil affects the capillary action so soaking the wick in oil before lighting it works best. Use wicks with a large weave or even tightly twisted strips of cotton cloth.

Olive oil works a treat in oil lamps but that is an expensive fuel. Lid for jar. This calculates out to about 15 cents per hour depending on how inexpensive you can find pure olive oil.