With the acquisitions of a couple of Coleman products recently, and seeing a fancy LED lantern at Costco yesterday, I got to wondering just how expensive these things were to purchase and operate. Coleman likes to tout the efficiency of their liquid fuel lanterns, but I didn't trust the sales hype.

I checked the Coleman Dual Fuel Lantern, about $85 (with Coleman brand and Crown brand fuel at Wally), Propane Lantern, about $50, and the Enbrighten LED Lantern, $28.

I figured out how much it'd be to run it per hour based on runtime, BTU, and fuel cost.

For the Coleman Dual Fuel, cost per hour on bright was 28¢, on dim was 7¢. Using the Coleman fuel at $12.92/gal, gives you an hourly cost of 40¢ for bright, and 10¢ for dim.

Propane in the 1lb cylinders going for about $3/lb gives you an hourly cost of 43¢ bright and 21¢ dim.

Now, an Enbrighten 8D LED lantern at Costco, using Duracell batteries at $1.21 each, costs 97¢ per hour on bright, but 2¢ at the dim mode.

So, I then ran the numbers based on the mid power level for an average usage, I ran it for using the lantern for 5 hours per day for 7, 14, 31 and 62 days.

Boy, was I surprised!

For 7 days, Crown fuel $6.06, Coleman fuel $8.82, Propane $11.21, and the LED $17.33!!

For 14 days: Crown $21.11, Coleman $17.66, Propane $22.43, and LED $34.66.

31 days: Crown $26.82, Coleman $39.11, Propane $49.66, LED $76.75.

Running them for 2 months, 62 days: Crown $53.64, Coleman $78.23, Propane $99.31, and LED...$153.49!!!

Now, the nice thing about the Dual fuel lantern is that...it can also run on Unleaded gasoline. That takes it down to not quite a quarter of the cost of the Crown fuel, and 1/5 the cost of Coleman fuel.

When you compare the cost of the Coleman Lantern running on Unleaded for 2 months vs the cost of the LED, the Coleman Lantern cost $15.50 for 6.3 gallons of gas compared to $153.50 for 126 batteries.

The chart below shows how I came up with some of these. The fuel cost is roughly how much it cost to fill the tank, attach a cylinder, or use 8 D batteries. The cost per hour is based on the manufacturers information for how long they'll run at the various output levels.

Other factors not included:
20lb propane cylinders with adapters or refilling 1lb cylinders from larger tanks, replacement parts (mantles, globes, etc) would have to be added, or get/make a wire mesh globe that lasts nearly forever.
Using unleaded fuel requires careful cleaning or replacement of the generator.
Storage of fuels requires a safe space, or shelf space. For 2 months, you'd need about 6 gals of Coleman fuel, 33 propane cylinders or 126 batteries.
Proper ventilation, if used indoors, is critical for the Coleman or propane lanterns. There are calculators for figuring that out.
The LED lantern has a USB charging port, but that'll drain the batteries a little faster.
The Coleman lanterns will put out heat. In winter, that may help your situation.
Getting a solar charger for the batteries would help, but the batteries and charger will change the costs.
Precautions must always be taken with flames or flame based lighting, heating or cooking sources, and a fire extinguisher should be handy.
Keep away from children.
Use common sense.


YMMV!