Lighting for the "Bunk House"

[patricimo54]

Planning ahead, (that is what you do when you don't have money to make it happen), I am trying to come up with dependable lighting for our Ozark bunk house.

We will not have power on the place to start with.

Alternate lighting has always been part of my homestead plan, but haven't really done alot with kerosene. We do have a couple of lamps in our home. LED lanterns are our major alternate source as well as candles and one Humphreys gas light in our kitchen.

For the Arkansas project we are wanting to use more oil lamps. Lehmans has some Czech made wall sconces that we are buying. They also have some hanging lamps that we are considering. When something doesn't up front proclaim country of manufacturing you can only assume Chinese junk. The lamps have mix reviews, but look good on paper.



I was just wondering if any of y'all know of a similar lamp, comparable in price that you would recommend?

[TRAPnHUNT]

Try looking for old lamps in working condition at antique shops. I found 3 old caboose lanterns with the red lens dirt cheap a number of years back. Two are in great condition and do work. The other is kind of beat up so I had a squirrel mounted on it. I still hit those shops and see alot of glass lamps at good prices. Even better prices these days since people need to sell.

[Admin]

I'm a big "alternative lighting" kinda guy so I'm loving this thread already.

THE BEST oil lamps I have ever used are Alladin Lamps. The ones that have a mantle, not just a wick like common oil lamps. They are the brightest oil lamps out there and throw as much light as a 65 watt bulb. They are more pricey than a common lamp but well worth the money.

I like to maximize my lighting possibilities with mirror reflectors. A piece of aluminum flashing behind a simple candle lantern will throw enough light to write by. You can buy a mirror adhesive film online that will allow your light reflection to reach it's full potential.

If I were you, I would set your Ozark place up like I did with my cabin. I have it wired simply. One strand of 12/2 running in a continuous loop throughout the place, with a exterior outlet on the porch. When I'm there, I just set my boat battery on the porch, hook my inverter to it, plug a double ended (male plugs) cord into the inverter and the other end into the porch outlet and the whole cabin is powered up.

For ambiance and just general illumination, I use oil lamps but for task, such as cooking, meal prep,dishes, reading and writing etc, you can't beat the convenience of electric light. Plus you can have you laptop to watch a video or whatnot. My 4 year old trolling battery will power my cabin all weekend. This is the slickest thing ever and so very glad I did this.

My cabin is small so I just ran one loop with no breaker box. I simply just leap frogged from one outlet to another. This works too good to ignore and I highly recommend it.

[nuttymechanic2000]

just please use a fuse i'v seen too many fires becauce of no fuse in 12 volt stuff

[patricimo54]

Thanks guys for the input.

We plan on doing some garage sales and resale/antique shops this weekend Ron.

I too am a big fan of alternate lighting J.C. The 12 volt rig is a great suggestion ;D

The fusing is a great idea Nutty Mech. Do you have suggestions on the best way to go about it?

[Admin]

Doesn't the inverter have a built in fuse in it?

Pat, You will enjoy the simplicity of this type of lighting, plus your place will be all rigged to power up via generator if need be. If your battery is low from watching too much Obama stuff on your laptop, you could always move the inverter under your hood and power the place up and charge your battery off your engine for a bit, or a solar panel or whatever.

I learned of this double ended cord on here from a post DH made a while back about how he fed his house with a generator. After reading that, I wired the cabin for that purpose and tried the battery/inverter thing and I was pretty impressed with how it turned out. If I use the lighting primarily for task and lanterns for general illumination, a single battery charge last me all through the weekend and my battery is 4 or 5 years old. My cabin is a half mile back in the woods and I can sit there with my laptop and make trapping videos. Pretty fricken cool man. ;D

[nuttymechanic2000]

there maybe fuse in inverter..but i always put inline fuse at battery also you can get 12volt led lights so you not using inverter all time my buddy has them and likes them and they not too bad in price i belive . and they will screw into normal light fixtures so they look like normal lights

[ninedeer]

very interesting stuff guys Thanks for sharing ;D

[Admin]

Another thing I do at the cabin for simple low light illumination is I have some of those solar lights outside and I'll bring one or two in at night. I have some I got from Walmart that have a stained glass type of lens so it throws a really nice amber light around the cabin much like an oil lamp does. They don't cost anything to run because they charge all day in the sun. I've even doen this at home before. If I'm watching the tub at night I don't need the house all lit up, just need to make my way to the fridge haha. One solar light in the kitchen lights the place up nicely.

I love this kinda stuff. ;D

[patricimo54]

I don't think this will be a real good copy, but the light on the upper left of this page caught my eye.



A few of these hung in and around the cabin might be a good supplement to warm weather lighting. We found these in
http://www.http.//.BePrepared.com

Here is an oil wall sconce that we have purchased a pair of from Lehman's that I think we will be ordering more of.



Mirror backed and Czech made I do believe it will have its place in the bunk house in colder weather.

[Admin]

Pat, Just a word of caution when using oil lamps with glass tanks. I'm sure you are plenty aware of the dangers involved with oil lamps and the glass tanked ones get me worrisome. The antique ones have very thick glass but the newer ones these days don't and if they ever got knocked down and broke,
well... nuff said.

Take a minute to look those new lamps over and make sure those clips holding the tank in place are good and strong.

Again, I'm sure you play it safe, just voicing my concerns because glass oil tanks freak me out a little. Maybe just because I have a border collie and he's always throwing balls around the house.

[patricimo54]

Jul 24, 2012 19:22:20 GMT -5 Admin said:

Pat, Just a word of caution when using oil lamps with glass tanks. I'm sure you are plenty aware of the dangers involved with oil lamps and the glass tanked ones get me worrisome. The antique ones have very thick glass but the newer ones these days don't and if they ever got knocked down and broke,
well... nuff said.

Take a minute to look those new lamps over and make sure those clips holding the tank in place are good and strong.

Again, I'm sure you play it safe, just voicing my concerns because glass oil tanks freak me out a little. Maybe just because I have a border collie and he's always throwing balls around the house.

Thanks for your insight and concern

The chimneys on these little Czech lamps are like fine crystal, but the oil tank is really pretty thick.