On 17/10/2020 21:52, T i m wrote:
I popped past Mums earlier and she's given me a couple of old torches
to look at because she has seen mention of power cuts and 'she tried
all the torches and none of them worked'.

So, whilst I'm sure I can get them working, they are likely
incandescent and so probably not give the best run-time for the size
etc.

My suggestion would be for at least one *fixed* mains powered emergency
light in the kitchen or living room where she spends most of her time.
(and test it periodically) We have two such true emergency fluoro lights
which are getting a little long in the tooth now. 4.5Ah battery ~2hr.

Inspection style LED torches are hard to beat for price performance
these days under a tenner for one that will last a few hours. Bright
enough to see by though not to fully light a room to normal levels.

Now she's probably forgotten I gave her at least 3 of those plug in
rechargeable movement detection / torches (that I think come on
automatically if the power fails) but I wondered if anyone had an
recommendations / thoughts for a decent 'lamp', something that would
light up a room but that she could carry / reposition that would last
a good few hours please?

The other thing to consider seriously is the risk of being away from any
source of light after dark when there is a power cut. Mains has become
so reliable these days that most people cannot imagine that scenario!

3M had a lovely little filament lamp based torch made of a dayglo
plastic doped with strontium aluminate which after daily exposure to
sunlight would glow for up to 8 hours. You could always find it in the
pitch dark - you could even see by its glow once dark adapted.
Unfortunately it failed to sell as people could not imagine how useful
it is to be able to find an emergency light in total darkness

This tape I think uses the same passive technology:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Glow-In-T...K/164316882163

A few pieces of this stuff where it will catch the sun in daytime means
that even in the pitch black you will still have a little bit of light.

You can obtain the same effect with modern LED torches by bridging the
on/off switch with between 1M and 10M so that it glows very dimly.

Again, I'm looking for something someone here has had personally
experience of and thought / thinks was a good bit of kit.

Reliable, easy to operate, light ish (she's still pretty able for a
90yr old so it doesn't have to be featherweight but nothing based on a
car battery). ;-)

I'd suggest a couple of AA powered inspection lights like these:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/COB-LED-3...s/193471623113

At 3W it would only be good for an hour or so on a set of AA batteries
so you may want a 1W unit or something that takes chunkier batteries.

It is a trade off between output, duration and weight.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown