Tea light standard size lasted 1hour 20 min only. the stick candles i got were down to a tiny burn at the 5 hour mark and went out few mins later. (leaving some wax to be recycled.)
the pillar candel seemed the best as it burned till bed time and i blew it out leaving well over 3 quarters left.
If we guess at price here how does it look then?
If you can get standard tea lights 100 for £2 at Asda/Tesco etc
stick ( as apposed to dinner) candles for 20-30p each roughly about 6" tall
and the cheapest pillar candle I bought was a Tesco value job at £1.50
The tea light seams pathetic till you think it's a shade less than 2p an hour, the reason is it is contained so will "theoretically" burn most of the wax, the wick being shortish to begin with can't burn too much either, and in the worst case the thing goes out leaving you recyclable wax, you can get those glass holders from Asda too which make them a bit safer or stick them in a jam jar.
My thinking has been that tea lights in safe holders would keep the place lit well enough to navigate in dark times/power failure and give off just enough heat to take the edge off the cold weather (excluding last winter), if more light was needed it really is horses for courses isn't it? If your trying to prepare food or do anything fiddly them candle light may not be the best choice, but for playing cards or eating they do the job well enough, but think fire at all times, and factor in pets potentially knocking them over.
I have a strategy, it's not written in stone, nor can it be, this scenario has too many variables, everything about it depends on those variables, being specific is not possible.
