I'm not an expert, but I have been using various oil lamps for years as accent lights.
First I am a user of only Aladdin Lamp oil for a couple reasons:
1. lowest soot and smell. My wife is very sensitive and this is the only one that she approves of.
2. It doesn't go bad, I have had less than stellar results with other brands.
I understand it is extremely expensive when compared to the stuff available at places like Walmart, but for me the aggravation isn't worth the savings. Also since using aladdin oil, I haven't changed a single wick in any of my lamps and they rarely even need trimming. (I think I haven't changed out any wicks in at least eight years.)
Doesn't go bad, you say? Aladdin oil will stay good even if it just sits there in the lamps for years, waiting for a power outage to occur and necessitate being fired up?
As far as light output, many factors go into it. If you are trying to make a flat wick light brighter, you might be extending the wick too far and the oil is not fully burning. As a general rule flat wick lamps just don't give off enough light for comfortable reading.
Yeah that's a commonly presented possibility. But ever since the last power outage that took us by surprise, and spurred by interest in kerosene lights in case of emergency, I've done a lot of reading on the subject. I read early on that best results are had when the wick is kept low and inside the cone where the most air can be drawn through the vent holes.
For the best light output there are two options, first an actual Aladdin light with a mantle. These are expensive somewhat fussy lights that require warm up times and regular replacement mantles as well as being expensive, on the other hand the light output is truly comparable to electric light, think 60 or 100 watt bulb.
I actually picked up one piecemeal not all that long ago. Model 23, still trying to figure out if the threads will work with other model bases, since I'm not a fan of the short, stout tank it comes with. You're definitely not kidding about the light output those things can generate. They have the advantage in light output, but flat wicks have the advantage of providing immediate light during the warm up phase.
The other possibility is a lamp that uses a special burner a Kosmos Oil Lamp Burner they have a special design that threads a flat wick into a circle and provides air to the center of the 'burning donut'. Lamps that use these burners are not cheap, think starting at about a hundred dollars and going straight up from there. There are a couple lamps with this burner for sale at Lehmans site (French Alps brass table lamp) as well as on Amazon. (look for Den Haan Oil Lamps.) I have two and they are far and away my favorite lamps. The light output does go up as they warm up, but being able to turn them down and use them as accent lights gives me great burn times between refilling. I have had zero problems with the one that I use as a desk lamp and honestly I don't think I've even needed to trim the wick in a year or more. I just extend a bit to light, turn it down as it heats up, and then turn way down right before before blowing it out.
Those are fancy, but definitely way outside of my emergency lighting budget.
The limited light output of the flat wicks isn't a major issue for us. It's mainly for emergency situations so we're not stumbling around in the dark, tripping over things. Granted if the power goes down for an extended period it might be a different story.
What I still can't figure out though, is why the light output seems greater with a shorter chimney? The only difference between the two heights is just that, the height. Everything else is the same between them in terms of measurement.
