Good points, and our situation w.r.t. available equipment is very similar. It is astonishing how much gear accumulates... we keep a lot of primary fuels on hand (not stored in the house) for various reasons, one being purchasing economies. Fuels range from wood (direct labor, not purchased) on up to some "exotics"... and include at the core several bulk tanks, cases of 1 lb disposables, gallons of sealed/stabilized white gas, and so on. Secondary fuels, such as automotive gasoline, mineral spirits (parts washer), etc. are available but not a factor in anything I can imagine for our benign region of the country.

If we did not have ex-house storage and did not have gear on hand I'm not sure where we would start, but the gear our eldest has been slowly accumulating points towards conventional camping gear - which is more a reflection of lifestyle than anything else. I've thought about kerosene heaters from time to time and had a wick-type two burner stove years ago ("salvaged" at the curb somewhere down south, IIRC). Have always greatly admired Aladin lamps but for the life of me, I can't justify them for our circumstances. My few dalliances with kerosene helped me appreciate de-sulpherized kerosene, but in recent years appliance-grade kerosene all seems to be "odorless" - bulk or packaged (my buddy uses kerosene space heaters and a salamander in his garage/home shop).

My few uninformed observations (casual inspections at curbside) of kerosene appliances like heaters and stoves is that they seem to get rusty fuel tanks after a few years of (presumedly) infrequent use . While that's probably more of a case of inattention on the owner's part than anything else, it makes me wonder if there isn't someone who markets things to help mitigate that.

P_L, does anyone offer kerosene appliances with stainless steel reservoirs, some sort of in-tank fuel driers, or things like that? Seems like there would be quite a market, at least among informed buyers. Or maybe it's not a problem for folks... like I wrote, I don't have much first-hand knowledge on the topic.