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Kerosene

How kerosene heaters work indoors, which grades burn clean, run costs, wick care and the ventilation they actually need.

Kerosene is the fuel that most divides opinion in home heating, and the argument is usually badly framed. It is not a question of whether kerosene heaters are safe — it is a question of which heater, which fuel grade, and which room. A 1-K wick heater in a ventilated room with a live carbon monoxide alarm has a decades-long safety record. The same fuel in a forced-air construction heater, in a closed garage, kills people every winter.

Three numbers do most of the work in this section. Sulphur content separates 1-K from 2-K kerosene at 0.04% against 0.30% — a sevenfold difference that ends up in the air of your room if you burn the wrong one. Ventilation is conventionally sized at one square inch of opening per 1,000 BTU/hr of heater output. And flash point, at roughly 38–72 °C against petrol's −43 °C, is the property that makes a domestic wick appliance possible at all.

Kerosene also has a second life most readers never think about: it is the same petroleum fraction that fuels jet aircraft as Jet A-1 and, in highly refined form, launches rockets as RP-1. The guides below cover both the domestic and the technical side.

What goes wrong most often

  • Buying a forced-air 'torpedo' heater because it burns the same fuel as an indoor-rated one.
  • Using red-dyed 2-K kerosene indoors because it was cheaper at the pump.
  • Treating a large room as a substitute for a ventilation opening.
  • Refuelling a hot heater, or refuelling indoors.
  • Reading a clean-looking flame as proof that the air is fine.

2 guides in Kerosene