I have a dozen or so lanterns and oil lamps.  Greatest light in the world?  Of course not, they're brighter than a candle by far but way short of a flashlight turned on end.  Where they come into their own is how long they can burn on limited space and fuel and the heat they add in winter.  Its pretty darn easy to store enough fuel for daily use for months when battery operated devices would be dead from lack of batteries.  Lamp oil/kerosene has an almost amazing shelf life as it relates to being a wick burning fuel.  We're not talking diesel here and a lot simpler device.  

Now whether it makes sense to simply go out and buy an oil lam or not, depends.  Many of us who use oil lamps have kerosene stove heat backups.  We're already storing kerosene and as many different applications you have for a fuel you are already storing, the better off you are.  Yep, we have gasoline lanterns too.  I'll take you a step farther, I have more than one cook stove that burns kerosene.  

Heck, I have the Dietz lantern with the cook pot, an old time railroad favorite, for heating soups or bowl type cooking.  Try that on an LED lantern.  

In summer, I have a couple lanterns I have designated for outdoor use and citronella oil which is on very high output source of bug away.  

During winter, one will take the chill out of good size room allowing you to lower your thermostat setting and in the case of using backup heat make a living space comfortable instead of huddle cold.  Its that slight edge.  Obviously, the opposite is also true.  In summer, its going to add heat but then not all of us live in dare not open the windows areas either.

Lanterns are a fantastic option on wilderness adventures when its too wet to easily make a campfire, too hot to,  or campfires are forbidden.  They also using a low fume fuel like liquid parrafin are a great heat up a tent option.  

All in all its a fantastic augmentation to your survival needs but its simply not a primary.  You are not going to clear a house well with an oil lamp or shine the light off into a distance.  Certainly you can read by them but its not easy as flipping a light switch.  Its not going to replace your flashlight or for that matter a nice LED lantern.  

BTW, The one you pictured is a monster.  About as much light output as a single flame shaped lightbulb but uses on big ass wick that limits your fuel options to just kerosene and puts out enough heat to not take the edge off a room but heat it.  I use mine on a porch.  I would recommend the Dietz Original or the Oil Lantern Cooker.  The cooker btw was used by railroad men years ago to hat their lunches.  As a cooking source, they're a lot like cooking on a Sterno stove, slow but it works.  They come with a regular top so it looks like any other lantern until you need the cooking function and they also come with their own mess kit, but you aren't limited to that mess kit.  

Tj

Good point and even a convincing point if all you have is an LED lantern that uses batteries.  The problem is when there's a prolonged outage there's hundreds of better uses for those batteries than simply moving about or background light.  I seriously have an old RockRiver LED lantern, I was turned onto by this forum, God what 10 years ago now, that I use every night I'm home as a night light.  Its still going strong.  My wife goes to bed before me and its my instant turn on low light, don't wake her, option.  I run it for a few minutes to get undressed etc. then shut it off.  It beats the hall out of a oil lamp for that.  I even have some crank LED lanterns, which work fantastic for a few minutes of light before bed that I use camping so I don't have to worry about dead batteries.  Heck, I even have single AA high output flashlights that you turn on, sit it upside down, makes a hell of a room light, not even to mention drawers of flashlights from Surefire to headlamps that date back to the old Rayovac 3 in 1. I probably have a dozen ways to recharge batteries.  I buy batteries by the case from NiMh rechargeables to CR123s.  Heck, I even have a close friend who represents a major batter company that gives me an annual care package for free.  

Still when I'm looking for a low level light that I can turn on and forget for hours upon end, that's an oil lamp or lantern.  Its not just pennies per hour but hours before having to mess with it.  These things are like electric lights, light them up, leave them on, till you go to bed.  When you use kerosene as both an axillary stove fuel axillary heat source, the fuel used to operate a couple lamps is almost negligible. Its like you plan for those, the lamp is almost a freebee.  Like I posted, its a hard to beat augmentation to other preps.  

A good rule of thumb is any energy source, fuel or battery, we store, its best to have as many options utilizing it as possible.  Alcohol, for example, is another fuel I really like.  It has no shelf life, nothing burns cleaner, and besides cooking etc., it has hundreds of uses from solvent to antiseptic. Two or three gallons, goes a very long way.  

In regards to the comment on candles, oh man, do we buy and use candles too.  The Holiday season is candle time.  There's seasonal sales and right after Christmas simply fantastic clearance buys.  We have candle holders, candle lamps, and candle lanterns from UCO (both types) to old school Revolutionary War types.  I've lived through two long term power outages, one blizzard and one hurricane, and both times, I was amazed when folks would tell me their flashlights were dead when I ask them "Do you have birthday candles?" how shocked they were.  Candles have no shelf life.  You just throw them in a drawer or a box and forget about them till needed.  Light enough of them, it'll not only heat a room in winter but light it up like an electric light.  

You can't talk candles without saying, nothing sets the mood for a romantic night with the Mrs better than a candle except a bear rug in front of a fireplace and two champagne glasses.  

We're extremely fond of glass jar candles.  We burn one every night this time of year.  Scented is good especially pine when using an artificial Christmas tree.  We even have an old wine bottle with over 40 years of melted wax on it.  Hell of a thing to see with more memories in it than a digital hard drive.  We could probably make a dozen candles from the melted wax.  I can't even begin to tell you how many candles we have in my house.  We buy the tea candles by the bags.  

You collect enough of this stuff, things like candles and lamp oil become purchase at opportunity type things.  You buy them when you run across them and the deal is good.  

This preparedness thing is a lifestyle thing, a way of living.  Do it right, you sue this stuff all the time.  You appreciate it all the time and it pays big time dividends when you actually need them.  

My pride and joy is a 3 gallon lamp oil can.  We searched high and low till we found one.  They're the cans that besides a screw top wide opening have a spout for filling lamps.  Mine I keep nothing but high grade liquid paraffin in.  Note here, you can't tell high grade until you burn some.  If it smells like a candle burning, it goes in my can.  Another really neat lantern is a yacht lamp.  We got into this boating which cabins on boats are water tight and fumes a really big deal.  Small lamps, they use round wicks just for paraffin.  They burn hours upon hours on once ounce of fuel.  They're a favorite for long distance sailors.  A gallon of fuel, you can cross an ocean.

Tj

They're from the same factory in China.  The factory makes two lines of lanterns.  Both use the same metal manufacturing but one is a commercial line like at amusement parks that the finish is much thicker to prevent corrosion and they offer options like colored glass globes etc.  Within the two lines, they private label various brands.  The commercial models are mostly for lanterns left outdoors in the weather. The Dietz brand is a licensed replica made like the old original US Dietz lanterns or I should close to them.  I have a couple old Dietz railroad lanterns and can tell you the finish on those and metal thickness are a tad better than the newer China models, but then the same can be said about a cars paint from back then too.  Like cars, we use better metals these days and better paints.  

Now the cheap Walmrt $10 lanterns, i have no idea where they come from.  They are obviously much cheaper in quality and construction.  They do things like single lap the metal instead of double lap and cheaper paint etc.  Now keep in mind, a lantern or lamp is not rocket science so if you get one that works and take care of it, its going to last a lifetime even a cheap one.  The problem with the Walmart cheap ones is some of them actually don't work out of the box.  I've bought more than one that just flat out leaked and their glass globes you sneeze on them they crack.  Still they make a good option for your citronella lantern if you get one that doesn't leak.  A note here, the chrome or I should say plated models are the ones that almost always leak.  In those cheap single lapped jointed lanterns, its actually the paint that keeps them from leaking.  They're that cheaply made.  When I buy those, I buy the classic ugly Red ones because I know the paint is thick.  

Now the same can't be said for the cheap Walmart lamps.  Glass is glass.  I have a cheap $6 clear glass lamp, I've used for years.  That being said, you can't compare a $6 Walmart lamp in beauty to a cobalt blue Bullseye classic.  They're just functional is all while hunting globes and wire globe holders almost a hobby for the more expensive more decorative lamps. Folks who do yard sales and flea markets do way better at those than someone like I do.  It takes me years sometime to find something I like.  It doesn't matter in the scheme of things because a lamp without a globe still burns fine.  Mantles, the glass chimneys are easy to find and you can simply order those.

As these guys have pictured, obviously them too, about my favorite lantern is the black bras trimmed.  They're very attractive lanterns and look nice sitting on a mantle or nick nack shelf till you need them.  One day, I'd like to have brass yacht lamps wall mounted at my house hallway corners.  They'd look neat as hell and in an emergency light burning for nights on one ounce of paraffin a no worry light lighting up the passageways of my house.  I haven't because those little decorative suckers cost and arm and a leg.

The little UCO candle lanterns, I use only for camping.  The Tea candle model comes in real handy for when a campfire is either too much a hassle or impractical and the 9 hour a life send inside a pack tent winter camping. I keep a Tea Candle model in my truck for those "OH hell, I just spend the night in my truck" cold winter nights.  The thing about candles is they have a natural built in low 02 sensor.  The flame will flicker out before you do.  Candle lanterns is what the old time miners use to use for oxygen levels way down in the mines.  Of course, they were hell on a methane pocket.  

Tj

I currently live in a very small house, so three wall-mounted oil lamps illuminate the downstairs pretty well, especially after one's eyes adapt.  I must say that adding some polished light reflectors behind the lamps, or even some aluminum foil pinned/taped to the wall  really adds to the available light.  The lights are mounted high enough so that some aluminum foil on the ceiling can be an advantage, not the least of which is protecting the ceiling paint against soot.

I chose wall-mounted lamps because they would be out of the way, and also much less subject to kids and pets.  The locations were carefully chosen.

While acknowledging that candles have many uses, I am not apt to use them, on account of pets and kids, not to mention that they ought to have some sort of protection against breezes, no matter how slight.  I am also (possibly paranoid) concerned about open flames, so if I were to employ candles, I would look to wall-mounted sconces, with light reflectors, in which the candle could safely burn, unattended, with zero oversight.  Open candles, stuck in common holders, subject to being tipped over are NG IMHO, and YMMV.  Pets, kids, and visitors, unaccustomed to such are my concerns.

The UCO camping candle lights can be retrofitted with a wicked oil insert, and it works pretty well.

During a power outage, you will come to appreciate it if your personal flashlight has a very dim setting, easily accessed.  We all enjoy pocket/belt lights that are real light-throwers, BUT, in a low-light environment, such as a dwelling lit by oil lamps/candles and so forth, a non-adjustable flamethrower of a flashlight is a disadvantage.

I have found that head-mounted lights are a tremendous asset in power outages, particularly in the first stages of setting out the gear needed to deal with the situation.  You will likely need both hands for a lot of things, and headlights make that possible.  You will find that after the first need for such is past, you will want to keep them in sight, in case of further need.  They are that handy.  I have a number of them, strategically located.

http://www.campmor.com/oil-insert-uco-candle-lantern.shtml?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=ppc&gclid=CI70lJa3ssICFUNrfgodrBMAcA

Guys just wanted to bump this thread to let you all know, I'm giving candle lanterns, both home decorative and UCO, as Christmas gifts this year.  

I'm sure it will be yet another of my survival Christmas gifts not really appreciated until they need them, but the call backs often months or years later when they do have been a highlight in my life.  I think often delayed appreciation is the best.

Tj

You only have a half dozen flashlights?  

Man, do you need to catch up my friend.

I often think I'm off the deep end of flashlight crazy.

Latest is that $11 Ozark Trails 150 lumen.  Dang, its bright, built well (metal housing and tail button) and a hell of a lot of light.