We have half a dozen kerosene lamps like this:
And a single 10,000 BTU kerosene radiant space heater kept the entire house more than comfortable (its a small house, and this is Tennessee - not New England.
For the lamps, get wick holders sized for 1" to 1.5" wicks. The wider the wick, the more light (and heat... don't underestimate the heat generated by those lamps. One lamp would keep a large bedroom very comfortable). I estimate that 1 gallon of Kerosene will provide 70 to 100 hours of light. We have 6 lamps and another 6 hurricane lanterns for outside and barn use (these have .75" wicks... the widest I have found. Get the big reservoir lanterns by Dietz. Don't bother with the cheap .375" wick jobbies you see in the camping section of the big box stores... not worth a good fart).
Candles just don't cut it.
We also have Coleman propane lanterns and 10' conversion hoses so we can hook them to 5 gallon propane tanks. The Amish folks I buy my livestock feed from use these in their house. They have a home built lamp table that has the propane tank built into it and the table is on wheels so it can be rolled to where the light is needed. I prefer the kerosene lamps... but they are not as bright as the propane lamps.
I keep 2, 55 gallon drums filled with Kerosene on hand, plus 4, 5 gallon containers. The drums are plastic, not metal. I do not worry about expansion and contraction caused by temperature swings when they are full. Also, metal will corrode from the outside, and one day your kerosene will be all over the floor of your storage area. We rotate but always keep a full inventory. Here in Tennessee and with a small house, that would get us through a heating season and a year's lighting. We learned a hard lesson during Hurricane Katrina... Tennessee is that the end of the pipeline, and our county literally ran out of fuel for a couple weeks with diesel being the biggest problem. I also installed an additional 1,000 gallon propane tank that just sits there as backup, and a fuel tank to hold some diesel for the tractor (and truck in an emergency).