On Thursday last week, we got hit with a terrible snow storm. It dumped 3 feet of snow during the day and brought down trees. These hit power lines and cable lines. I lost power. That took out my water, light and heat. My car was under 3 feet of snow, so there was no running for supplies.

I had to improvise, so I took out some vegetable oil, a glass container and some twine. I made an oil lamp for light and heat.

The diy oil lamp worked surprisingly well. It helped warm up the place a bit and provided quite a bit of light. I made two of them and one had a double wick for more heat and light. The only thing I had to do was top off the oil once a day to prevent smoking. When the oil got a bit low, the wick was too long, making smoke. So, I just kept it full. The thing only burnt about a quarter to half inch of oil per 24 hours. That was a nice bonus. It is very efficient.

I posted all the details here:

DIY Oil Lamp