Spyderco Forums

Hiya folks!

Does anyone here heat their house with kerosene? Most folks up here use propane, oil, or wood, but a couple of the houses we've looked at use kerosene (two out of several hundred). If you do use kerosene, are they any pros/cons about it?

Thanks!

I used to sell all kinds of heating stoves and I would never use kerosene,it IMO is dirty and expensive.
I do not know if they still make them but there was one kerosene heater that was direct vented with electronic thremostat that was something like 97% efficient but it was also very high priced,about 4 times as much as Nat gas.
The salesperson I talked with said in tests the cost of a winters heating of a whole house ran from 18.00 in north FL to 189.00 in MI.I didn't really belive that though.
IMO the best way to go is with non vented Nat gas or propane,99.9 efficient.

I think it makes more smoke than propane or natural gas too.

98% Whale Oil 2% Baby sea lion oil is the only way to heat the home. :eek:

My Dear Friend,

J Smith wrote:...it IMO is dirty and expensive...

Exactly.

I used kerosene briefly to augment our heating system during a week-long power outage. I had to repaint the entire room the following spring.

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Hannibal

Hannibal - you forgot to mention the smell! :D

My Dear Friend,

Goldtanker wrote:Hannibal - you forgot to mention the smell! :D

You're right; I did forget that particularly nasty aspect of kerosene heat. :p Nasty...

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Hannibal

Thanks, everyone!

It looks like everyone's experience has been with space heaters. Anyone use kerosene as a whole-house heating system? Seems like it may be slightly less messy and smelly (I can dream, right?) and mucho more expensive.

The ones I was talking about was whole house.I can't use the space heaters as they give me a very bad migrain.
The large whole house heaters do still smell although everyone that I knew that had them said they could not smell it but I sure could.

thombrogan wrote:Thanks, everyone!

It looks like everyone's experience has been with space heaters. Anyone use kerosene as a whole-house heating system? Seems like it may be slightly less messy and smelly (I can dream, right?) and mucho more expensive.

Yes! When I lived with my Grandfather, he used kerosene to heat the whole house. It was worse in every way!

Thanks, J Smith!

Based on what you and the others have said, IH812! Sounds too scary/sooty/stinky.

For every gallon of kerosine burned, one gallon of water is generated into the space. This can result in damp on walls, in furniture, clothes etc.

This info is from my days with Building Research. We studied the effects of this sort of heating and cooking in low income housing.

BTW we call kerosine "paraffin". Also, gasoline is "petrol". (Tomartoe, tomaytoe !)

A recent appearance here is the use of a green alcohol-based gel for cooking. This arose after country-wide power black-outs. This stuff is fairly safe, with no fumes (except steam and CO2). If spilled, it remains in a blob instead of spreading out like kerosine.

Mike

Just move to Texas where you don't need a heater :cool: