Every household should have one of those.....

[cozietoesie]

Quote from a close acquaintance who was in my top room yesterday afternoon and spied some rechargeable lanterns huddled by the window, soaking up some rays on their solar panels.

And he wasn't anywhere near being a prepper.

OK - he might have thought that maybe I had too many () but I reckon that one or two of those could still solve any present problems for relatives.

This is next on my to buy list. I think I will get one that has a wind-up function as well as solar panels.

I just bought a Halfords Portable Gas Stove for use in emergencies. It is down to £10 so feels like a bargain. They have free delivery at the moment but I think that offer ends tomorrow. They don't deliver the gas canisters unfortunately. Wish I had bought one of these when I had my kitchen done!

The ones I have are 'multi-rechargeable'. Solar panels, wind-up, and also mains. (While that's still available.) The person who made the comment seemed to think that that last was - somehow - a bit of a cheat but I don't see it myself.

I think they may also have a car battery thing but I have that many connectors in this house that I've plain forgotten on that one.

That's all the bases covered. I will look for the same. I think having the option to use mains power is useful as there may be situations where the power comes on intermittently.

I checked. Yes - they do have car battery chargers. (I haven't got a car so I didn't test that function.)

They also have a USB port thingy so that you can charge things that need a USB input. I'm afraid I haven't checked that out either.

Sorry - I mean 'tested it'. (I've just eyeballed it.)

A power bank as well, that is great. I'm off to have a look on amazon.

Search on 'Dynamo lantern'. That's the best term.

I'm going to get the AGPtek one for delivery at the weekend. It gets really good reviews.

Those are mostly the ones I have. They're not 'relaxing' lights from my perspective - the quality of LED light seems very blue and cold to me compared to the 'warmer' light from ordinary bulbs - but they certainly seem efficient.

By the way, keep one fingernail 'sharpish'. Those lights generally have a protective film on both the bulb chamber and the solar panel which need to be taken off before first use. A little fiddly but no biggie.