Best Bedside Blackout Kit

A four-pack of compact aluminium LED torches with batteries included — cheap enough to stash one in every drawer, car and bag so there's always light within reach in a power cut. They're basic rather than high-output, but for the price you get reliable pocket lighting and useful redundancy, which matters more in an emergency than raw brightness from a single expensive torch.

• Four torches means one for every room, car and bag
• Thick-walled aluminium bodies stand up to knocks
• Batteries included — ready to use straight out of the pack

A compact 400-lumen rechargeable head torch that also clips off as a cap light. Hands-free light for reading a meter, fixing something in the dark, or moving around the house safely when the power's out.

• Rechargeable via USB, so no constant battery buying
• Detaches from the headband to use as a clip-on cap light
• Bright 400-lumen beam with dimming and red modes

A rechargeable LED lantern that throws a wide, even light rather than the narrow beam of a torch, which makes it the better tool for lighting a room or a tent during a power cut. It runs off its own built-in battery and recharges over USB, with brightness and runtime settings so you can trade light output for a longer burn. A sensible backup to keep charged on a shelf alongside your torches.

• Wide 360-degree light for rooms and tents, not just a spot beam
• USB-rechargeable so there are no batteries to buy
• Adjustable brightness to stretch runtime when it matters

A high-capacity 20,000mAh pack that keeps several devices going across a long outage. The choice when you need days of backup power, not hours.

• Enough capacity to recharge phones many times
• Charges two devices at once
• Strong value per mAh for the household

A wind-up AM/FM emergency radio that also charges from solar, USB or its 2000mAh internal battery, so you can keep hearing local broadcasts during a prolonged power cut. It doubles as a small torch and a top-up charger for a phone in a pinch. Crank output is modest, so treat the hand-crank as a backup to the built-in battery rather than the main power source.

• Four ways to power it: hand crank, solar, USB charge and internal battery
• AM/FM reception for local emergency and weather bulletins
• Built-in LED torch and USB output for an emergency phone top-up

A single branded foil survival blanket that reflects radiated body heat back to help stave off hypothermia while you wait for help. It packs down small enough to live in a coat pocket, car glovebox or first-aid kit. Best treated as one-time emergency insulation rather than reusable kit.

• Reflects back a large share of radiated body heat
• Packs down tiny — fits a pocket, glovebox or first-aid kit
• Windproof and waterproof foil layer