Some things in the prepping world are pretty obvious. You have to just go do them. If you want to not go to bed at 6pm every night in the winter, it might be a good idea to think about some lights.
Food? Some people (idiots), think they can live off the land. Water? Eh, there’s plenty of water around. Cooking? Well anyone can light a fire. But lights? Just how many candles do you think you are going to find after the lights go out for good?
In this video I reprise an overview of what I have discovered in the best options for lighting with diesel fuel, which works just as well as kerosene in all the lanterns I discuss. If you go search the archives here on “diesel,” or “lamps” you’ll find my old reviews of all of these lamps, and some good comparisons.
What I didn’t include here are pressure lamps. Most of those that you’ll find are made for Coleman fuel, and will work fine also with gasoline. But there are pressure lamps for kerosene as well, and they work fine with diesel. I just personally haven’t gotten to reviewing them yet.
The sound of pressure lamps, and the pumping, and the fragile mantles, make them not the best choice for our purposes here. But Lehman’s has them, and they are on Ebay and Alibaba if you search for oil lanterns.
As I explained in the video, there will be a rush on Rayo lamps right now on Ebay, and also perhaps Aladdin lamps, (we do email over 800k people this article) but they do come on regularly, and in good shape with shipping they aren’t worth more than $100. A shade can be as much as another $100, but I just got one with a shade for $60, shipped, and it works great. You just have to remember to keep checking until you find one.