Emergency Radios for UK Power Cuts: Hand-Crank vs Solar vs Battery

For most UK homes, the right emergency radio is a rechargeable one with a hand crank and a small solar panel as backups, tuned to FM. Keep a cheap battery radio as a spare and you're covered.

Here's why it matters. In a long power cut your broadband goes with the power, and mobile masts only have limited battery backup, so after a while your phone can lose signal and data too. A radio needs neither. It's a one-way line to local news that keeps working as long as it has charge, and in a power cut the one question everyone has is how big this is and how long it will last.

"Emergency radio" covers everything from a dependable bit of kit to a lump of plastic with a crank handle that snaps the third time you use it. This guide compares crank, solar and battery power honestly, explains what to listen to in Britain (which has changed recently), and helps you choose one you'll trust.

The Quick Answer

Crank, Solar or Battery?

Most emergency radios run on some mix of three things: your arm, sunlight and stored charge. Knowing what each is really good for is the difference between buying a gadget and buying a tool.

Hand crank: works as long as you do

The crank is why emergency radios exist as a category. Turn the handle, make power, listen. No shops, no sunshine, no mains needed.

What matters is how much listening you get for your effort, so check the maker's figure for minutes of radio per minute of cranking, and treat a radio that doesn't give one with suspicion. The weak point is the gearbox: on cheap radios the gears are thin plastic, and a tooth can shear when you crank hard on a cold morning. Look for a handle that folds flat, turns smoothly, and is big enough to grip with gloves on.

Cranking is also noisy. Wind it up before the news, not during it.

Solar: a top-up, not a power source

The solar panel on an emergency radio is a trickle charger. It's small, and in a British November under cloud it will give you very little. What it's good for is a slow, free top-up: leave the radio on a windowsill through a power cut lasting several days and it will gently put charge back while you get on with other things. It won't rescue a flat battery in an afternoon.

So don't dismiss it, but don't plan around it either. Charging phones and lights properly off-grid is a job for a separate folding panel, not the panel on a radio lid.

Battery: usually the right answer

A charged battery gives you hours of radio at the flick of a switch, with no cranking. There are two kinds.

A built-in rechargeable battery. Capacity is given in mAh. The Midland ER100's 2,600mAh runs the radio happily and gives a phone a partial top-up. The ER300 Pro's 10,000mAh is enough, Midland says, to fully charge a smartphone twice, which is the difference between a radio with a USB port and a radio that doubles as a power bank. USB-C charging matters more than it sounds: it's the same cable as most phones now use.

The catch is that lithium batteries slowly lose charge in storage and don't like sitting flat for months. So charge it fully before you store it, then top it up every three to four months.

Replaceable AA or AAA batteries. Old-fashioned, and good because of it. A simple battery radio has no charging circuit to fail, and it will sit in a drawer for years. Pair it with a pack of lithium AAs, which keep their charge far longer than alkaline, cope better with cold and are much less likely to leak.

The strongest setup has both: a rechargeable radio for everyday use and a battery set as the spare.

Our Picks

The main radio: Midland ER300 Pro

The Midland ER300 Pro is the one we'd keep in the kitchen cupboard. It receives FM and medium wave, and its 10,000mAh battery charges by USB-C, hand crank or solar panel. It also has a USB socket to charge your phone, a 130-lumen torch, an SOS light and alarm, a headphone socket, a backlit display, and a Bluetooth speaker so it doubles as an ordinary radio day to day.

Best for: the household's main radio. The one you'd grab first.

The compact one: Midland ER100

Not everyone wants a big radio. The Midland ER100 is smaller, lighter and simpler to use: AM/FM with a telescopic aerial, a 2,600mAh battery you can charge by USB, crank or solar, and an LED torch with an SOS mode. It's a good choice for someone who just wants to switch it on and hear the news.

Best for: a second radio upstairs, an older relative, or the car.

The spare: a basic battery radio

We don't sell these, and you don't need anything special. Any simple AM/FM radio that runs on AA or AAA batteries will do. Store it with the batteries out and a sealed pack of lithium AAs taped to it.

Best for: the layer underneath everything else.

What to Listen to in the UK

This is where a lot of advice online, and a lot of older radios, will point you the wrong way.

FM is the one that matters

Your BBC Local Radio station on FM is your area's emergency broadcaster, and it will carry local news on power, roads and water. BBC Radio 4 on FM carries national news. Frequencies vary around the country, so look up your local ones now and write them on a strip of tape on the back of the radio. When it's dark and you're worried, you don't want to be hunting along the dial.

Long wave has gone

BBC Radio 4's long wave service on 198 kHz went off air on 27 June 2026. Older guides tell you to tune to it, and some radios still have a long wave band, but there's nothing there now.

Medium wave is being switched off

The BBC has been switching off its medium wave transmitters since 2018. Radio 4 left medium wave in 2024, and the BBC has said Radio 5 Live's medium wave will go by the end of 2027. Both of our emergency radios have medium wave and it's useful while it lasts, but don't choose a radio for it.

DAB: fine at home, not what we'd rely on

DAB sounds good, but it doesn't fade gently like FM: when the signal weakens it just cuts out. DAB radios also tend to get through batteries faster. Neither of our emergency radios has DAB, and for a power cut FM is what you want.

Shortwave won't bring you UK news

The BBC stopped its shortwave broadcasts to Europe in 2008, so a shortwave radio won't get you the World Service here. It will pick up broadcasters from other countries, which is an enjoyable hobby, but it isn't a way to follow what's happening in Britain.

Ignore "NOAA weather alerts"

You'll see this on radios made for the American market. It's a US weather service on frequencies around 162 MHz, and nothing broadcasts on them in the UK. It doesn't hurt to have it, but don't pay extra for it.

Alerts on your phone

Emergency Alerts on your mobile only reach you while your phone has signal, which is one more reason to keep a radio.

Talking Back: Walkie-Talkies and Amateur Radio

A radio tells you what's happening. It doesn't let you talk to anyone. For that you need something two-way.

Walkie-talkies on PMR446 are licence-free in the UK and are fine for keeping in touch around a house, a street or a campsite. The Midland G7 Pro is a good place to start, and our walkie-talkie range has the rest.

Amateur radio goes much further, but you need a licence to transmit. The first step is the Foundation licence, and the exam is more approachable than most people expect. The Foundation Licence Manual takes you through it.

A Simple Backup Plan

The idea is that no single failure leaves you without news. For most households it looks like this:

1. Your phone and internet, for as long as they last.
2. An ordinary radio at home, on mains or batteries.
3. Your rechargeable emergency radio, charged and ready.
4. The hand crank or the battery spare, for when everything else is flat.

Write it down on paper, in the drawer with the radio: your local BBC frequencies, where your household will meet, and the phone numbers you'd need if your phone died.

Keeping It Ready

The most common failure isn't a broken radio. It's a flat one.

Check it every three months. Switch it on, tune to a station, check the torch, top up the charge, put it back. Put reminders in your diary and it takes two minutes.

Store alkaline batteries outside the radio. Alkaline cells leak as they age and corrode whatever they're sitting in, which is how stored kit quietly ruins itself. Lithium AAs cost more but keep far longer and are much less likely to leak. Label spares with the date and use them up before they age.

Test it where you'd use it. A radio that's clear by the kitchen window may struggle in a back room or a cellar. Try it in every room you'd realistically use, and extend the aerial fully.

Reading the Spec Sheet

mAh. Battery capacity. A typical smartphone battery is 3,000 to 5,000mAh, and some charge is always lost in the transfer, so a 10,000mAh radio gives roughly two phone charges.

Analogue or digital tuning. Analogue dials are simple and use a little less power. Digital tuning shows the exact frequency and lets you save presets, which is handy when you're tired and it's dark. For a main radio, digital with presets; for a spare, either.

Aerial. A long telescopic aerial matters more than most extra features. A short stub is fine for strong local FM and poor for anything else.

Torch and SOS. Useful, but don't let a bright torch sell you a poor radio. A proper torch or lantern will always do the lighting job better.

Headphone socket. Earphones use less battery than the speaker and let you listen at 3am without waking the house.

Water resistance. The second number of an IP rating covers water. IPX3 copes with rain; IPX4 copes with splashes from any direction. Neither means waterproof: if the radio's going somewhere genuinely wet, put it in a dry sack.

Common Mistakes

Buying on price alone. A very cheap crank radio isn't a bargain if the gearbox fails. Kit that fails when you test it is worse than none, because you planned around it.

Never testing it. Take it out of the box this week, tune it in every room, and time how long a minute of cranking really lasts.

One radio and no spare. Two modest radios beat one expensive one.

Forgetting the frequency. Tape your local BBC frequency to the radio. Do it today.

So Which Should You Buy?

For most households, a rechargeable radio with a hand crank, solar top-up, USB-C charging and FM: the Midland ER300 Pro, which also comes as part of our Emergency Radio Backpack Kit.

For a second radio or someone who wants it simple, the Midland ER100.

For the spare, a basic AA radio with lithium batteries stored alongside.

For keeping in touch nearby, a pair of licence-free walkie-talkies.

Buy one, test it this weekend, check it every three months, and keep your plan on paper in the same drawer. That's the whole job, and it doesn't need to be expensive.

See the full emergency radio range, or ask us if you're not sure which suits you. We reply within 24 hours, every time. We've shipped over 10,000 orders since 2020, we're rated 4.9 on Trustpilot, and you have 30 days from delivery to return anything unused.