2 weeks ago we lost power in our neighborhood due to high winds for a good 4 hours.
I began to think about the possibility of a more prolonged interruption such as the one we had during the ice storm of 98.

For those who will cry Carbon Monoxide.
A study was performed where they monitored the levels of carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide in 14 homes while using modern (1984) kerosene heaters and they found that the mean concentrations were 7 parts per million (PPM) CO and 0.4 PPM SO2.
Carboxyhemoglobin levels were significantly increased (p less than 0.0001), but performance on spirometric tests was not worsened by exposure to heater emissions in the 29 healthy residents of these homes.[1]

During the ice storm of 98 I heated the house with a 23,000 btu kerosene heater for 7 days.
I ran the heater for an average of 9 hours a day, burning 1.5 gallons of kerosene per day.
This kept the house temperature in the 60F range.
That heater sat around for the next 10 years gathering dust so I gave it to a friend who has a cabin in the woods up north.

Last weekend I started browsing ads on Kijiji for used Kerosene heaters.
I was basically looking for bargains on quality heaters and I found 2 that were reasonably close.
The first was an ad for a Kero-Sun Radiant 10 10,000 btu heater and 5 gallons of kerosene for $60.
If the kerosene was good it alone was worth $60.00
The price on the 5 gallon kerosene container told me that the kerosene was around 20 years old $9.98.
I brought the heater home, drained the tank and found no algae or moisture in the tank.
I poured some “fresh” fuel from the 20 year old container into the heater but I was unable to get it to light.
I removed the wick and soaked it in methyl hydrate for 5 minutes to push any contaminants out of it.
The methyl hydrate came out looking very cloudy so there seems to have been moisture present.
I then dried the wick as much as possible using paper towels and I brought it outside.
I carefully dried the wick out the rest of the way with a heat gun being careful not to burn it.
Methyl hydrate is highly flammable which is why I did this outdoors.
Not taking any chances I emptied the fuel tank once again, i added a little freshly bought kerosene to the tank, reassembled the heater and got it to light.
Once I ran it for 15 minutes in fresh kerosene I shut it off and let it cool down then filled the tank with the 20 year old kerosene. It was crystal clear and had no contaminants in it.
The heater fired up and ran on the old kerosene without any problems.


Feeling happy with my accomplishment I set out to find another deal.
I found an ad for a Kero-Sun Omni 15 8,500 btu heater for $35.00.
It was missing the battery compartment for the electric start feature but the overall condition was very good.
Once home I disassembled the heater and gave it a good cleaning.
The heater had fresh kerosene in it and lit on the first try.

Once I was confident in the reliability of my heaters I set out to do a stress test on my home to see if the heaters were up to the task at hand.
The weather for Wednesday was a high of 28F (-2C) and a low of 5F (-15C) with an average of 17.5F (-8C).
The weather for Thursday was a high of 16F (-9C) and a low of 3F (-16C) with an average of 10.5F (-12C).

My house is a duplex with 1440 sq. ft, per floor.
The garage takes up 500 sq. ft, of the basement, a bachelor appartement which is used as my gun room and reloading room takes up another 440 sq. ft, and the remaining 500 sq. ft, are taken up by the family room.
I set up the radiant heater in the bachelor and the omnidirectional heater in the family room.
There is an open staircase from the family room leading up to the main floor.
My thought was that by heating the basement the heat will rise to reach the main floor.

I turned down all the thermostats to the minimum 45F (7C) at 7:00am Wednesday morning before leaving for work.
When I arrived at the house at 7:00pm the temperature in the house was 51F (10.5C) and the outdoor temperature was 5F (-15C). I fired up both heaters and let them run all night.
The temperature in the bachelor where I placed the radiant heater went as high as 64F (17.8C) with the interior door to the rest of the house open.the temperature in the playroom where the second heater was placed was 61F (16C).
The average temperature upstairs was 54F (12.2C).
Don’t forget that I waited for the house to cool for 12 hours before turning on the heaters.
I wanted to simulate the conditions I would find if I was coming home to a cold house.

The Radiant 10 10,000 btu heater consumed 1 gallon of kerosene in 13 hours which puts the actual heat output at 10,300 btu/h
The Omni 15 consumed 0.5 gallons of Kerosene in 12 hours which puts the actual heat output at 5,583 btu/h.
The wick on that heater needs to be raised a bit more to give more output.

I will perform the same test again the next time I get similar weather but this time I will start the heaters immediately and I will report back with my results.

I have my eye on another 8,500 btu heater and I will pick it up if the price is right.

[1]R Cooper, K & R Alberti, R. (1984). Effect of kerosene heater emissions on indoor air quality and pulmonary function. The American review of respiratory disease. 129. 629-31.

Excellent Post

nearly the same as my plan

I have a 28K btu kerosene and a 18k btu propane cabinet heater
I wanted a choice for fuels as kero can be hard to find around here, well that's not $10 a gallon. only two gas stations that sell it are farm service and they close at 5 every day and not open on Sunday. usually $4.?? something a gallon.

18K this heater is awesome because it has 3 heat settings, turn on hi and warms my shop in just a few minutes, turn on low and keeps temp all day.
this is similar to my 28k btu but mine is older, it works very well but these types of heaters are not adjustable for heat output and I don't often need a constant 28kbtu going in the shop.
people think raising and lowering the wick is how to adjust the heat but it's not, there is only one place that wick is burning at near 100% effiecient, anywhere else and you are poluting your air, if you don't believe me read the manual.
I also have one of these, makes a ton of heat and is very noisy, use in my big garage whille making emergency winter time auto repairs, sometimes if it's really cold I wish it was bigger and noisier

Yep.
That's some cold temps to deal with. My back up is long johns.

Not saying it's not cold, but remember that OP is Canadian and those are Celsius temps.

Sorry I originally posted it on a Canadian site.
I’ll edit to add Fahrenheit.

What was name of heater you used 10 years ago, seemed pretty good on fuel

Kero-Sun Omni 230.
Kerosene has a calorific value of 134,000 btu/US Gallon any way you slice it.

I see.... That's still cold for me. We get that at night but if the sun is shining it's warm here.

Just a little update.
I was looking at some YouTube videos of others who are using the same heaters.

Some people are using Ultra Low Sulfer Diesel in their heaters.
The only thing that they mention is that only cotton wicks can be used because the fiberglass wicks don’t seem to work very well with ULSD probably due to the viscosity.

They are adding 4oz of 91% Isopropyl Alcohol per gallon of ULSD.
Basically all on road diesel fuel sold in the USA and Canada is ULSD.
The Sulfer content of 1-K kerosene is 0.04% and the Sulfer content in ULSD is 0.0015%

I ran a 1/4 gallon through my Omni 15 this morning with no noticeable issues. No smoke, no carbon monoxide, no smell, no noticeable difference in flame size, shape or color.

Once I order and receive a replacement wick for my Radiant 15 which has a cotton/fiberglass wick I will try running ULSD in it and I will post my results.

Update I decided to try running Ultra Low Sulfer Diesel in my Radiant 10 despite not having a backup wick.
I added 6oz of 99% Isopropyl Alcohol to 1 gallon of ULSD.
So far I can’t tell the difference between ULSD and 1-K kerosene.

Also I added a new addition to my collection.
A Kero-Sun Sundowner.
This is one is from one of the last 2 lots of the Sundowner line.
The glass has an anti-reflective coating which starts of as yellow near the top and goes towards violet at the bottom.
It has that rainbow effect like when you have a drop of gas or oil in a puddle of water.
It didn’t look anywhere that good when I bought it.
The glass was heavily sooted and the whole unit was dirty and greasy.
It was a good buy for $50.00 Canadian or $37.50 USD.

Those Sundowners are nice for smaller areas.  I've got two different ones I have picked up at flea markets for $20.   I also really like the old Aladdin Blue Flame heaters.

I have 2 of the big 22,000 BTU tower heaters and heated solely with them years ago.  They certainly were handy for larger spaces.

Used Kerosene heaters for over a decade back in the 80-90's... Never a problem..

I live in Florida, but it still gets chilly, so I have an HMN110... it is hard to beat the Miles Stair site for comprehensive kero heater information

http://www.milesstair.com/kero_heaters.html

Good info Thump, and good on you for testing things out ahead of time.  "When did Noah build the Ark? BEFORE it rained".

I had a kero heater after the non-event of Y2K.  To recoup some of my investment I used it to supplement heat the house for a winter and saved the money on the power bill.  It was easy to manage and heated well.  However it left a sooty stain on the ceiling where it was located in the living room.  Dunno if the issue was the heater, the fuel, or how I ran it.

I believe it is most likely how you ran it.
These heaters burn clean if you don’t have the flame burning outside of it’s parameters.

The Sundowner I picked up was a sooty mess.
You couldn’t even see through the glass.
I took it all apart and cleaned it before starting it.
I have been running it non stop since Sunday.
I took it apart again a few hours ago just to check on the wick and there isn’t even a hint of soot anywhere and I’m running Ultra Low Sulfer Diesel with Isopropyl Alcohol in it.