One thing to be careful of, is that the rechargable batteries won't last forever. You'll need to be careful to check them periodically to make sure the batteries still function.

Flourescents are a pretty good idea for this sort of work. Earlier this year, we had a storm pass through that knocked our power out for 3 days. Fortunately, since I do emergency response ham radio stuff, I have a bunch of high capacity gel-cell batteries laying around. I also have compact flourescents in a bunch of my lamps. I was able to run out to the store, get some cheap 12v to 120v inverters and plug the desk lamps into my batteries. Worked quite well. Probably a good idea to keep some low wattage (14w) bulbs around to replace the higher wattage ones for this purpose.

Also, Home Depot around here carries a $10 battery operated flourescent lamp, requires 8 AA batteries. The neat thing is that it also has a 2.1mm socket for external 12v power, and runs beautifully off my batteries. Not the brightest light, but it's enough to get around the house without killing myself.

For anybody here in the D/FW area, Costco has been carrying a single tube, battery operated single-tube GE flourescent lantern for around $15. I need to pick up a few.

Another little trick - I recently standardized on DeWalt power tools. DeWalt has a flourescent handheld light that runs off the 12/14v and 18v batteries that their tools use. Cheaper bought off eBay. It has a lot of hanger options built into it, too. I keep that hanging on a shelf for immediate use. It's not long lasting, a battery only runs it for about 4 hrs, but it does let you use those tool batteries in an emergency.