oil lamps ?

does anyone use them? can you recomend some?

I bought a few at Walmart.  The Lamplight Lamp has been working fine for me for a while.  The Lamplight pure oil works great, very low smell, most of the time I don't notice it at all.  I think they were selling Lamplight lamps at Fred Meyers here in Washington State as well.

Oh, I have been using my lamp regularly, but with my home made candle heater.  It works great for that.  The light is a nice byproduct. 

Oh, and be careful when you light them, mine tends to warm up and need readjustment of the flame back down, as it tends to get higher as it warms up. 

Lauren

I liked this blog entry on the topic. Apparently homebrew biodiesel can work in kerosene lamps:

http://blog.holyscraphotsprings.com/2009/12/cheap-heat-biodiesel-lamp.html

There's lots of good alt-energy content by the same authors, so I read them fairly regularly.

I used an olive oil lamp from Lehman's for awhile. I liked that it wasn't a fossil fuel oil. Generally it burned without smoke, but sometimes the wind would get to it or the oil would get low and then there would be soot. But you couldn't get simpler--reasonably thick-walled jar to resist heat; wire hanger for the wick; wick; olive oil.

I have an oil lamp someone gave me that is so simple.
It is a round glazed earthenware vase with a small neck opening. The wick mechanism is a bead with a hole, a bit larger than the neck opening and a wick. The wick is strung through the bead with only 1/4" showing up through the bead.
Fill the vase 3/4 with oil, lower the longer end of the wick in and light the short 1/4" end showing through the bead after the wick has time to soak up oil.

I suspect the bead is made of a fireclay mix. It looks earthy with grit, not a smooth jewelry bead.
 

Have a look at http://www.instructables.com/id/Glass-Bottle-Oil-Lamp/

expect soot production, minimized with the right length of wick but always there.  A good emergency alternative but if in regular use perhaps use in a "hurricane" type lamp and hang outside an open-able window, light and hang outside.

I grew up using kerosene lamps.  They have a nice soft light.  Make sure to keep the wick trimmed at a slight convex and don't turn it up to high.  If you have children, consider using lamps with a metal reservoir, as the glass ones can turn into a molotov cocktail in small careless hands.  Always remove the chimney from the bottom to prevent blisters.  Take care in cleaning the glass chimneys (damp newspaper pushed through with a chopstick) as the new ones are thin and break easily (never clean while hot).  If you can find the antique chimneys that are thicker glass and are beaded at the top, snap them up.  The nicest for home lighting are small and sit in metal wall brackets with a polished metal reflecting plate behind them.  They haven't manufactured this type for over a hundred years, but I still see them for sale occasionally at flea markets and antique stores.

the wall mount are the ones i wanted