I bought one of the HF 45 watt solar panel kits a few years back and never had a use for the lights that come with it.  Well, after a few beers tonight I got a wild hair and converted my desk lamp to power poles and put one of the HF bulbs in it.  The laptop is still plugged into the wall, but everything else is running off the batteries.  There's plenty of light.

That is one big hole in my station: I have everything in my shack automatically switch over to battery power when I have a commercial power outage.
When the power goes out, I always immediately come down to my shack to operate since I don't have anything else to do with no power.
However it's only then that I remember that the one thing I don't have connected to batteries is the lighting. At that point I always say that first thing in the morning I am going to fix that and thus far have never remembered to do it.
I can sit here an run all my radio equipment but without a battery powered lantern I can't see

The lights are useless as manufactured!  The on/off switch is on the power plug end, NOT on the bulb end!  I took one and rewired it to have the switch on the bulb end.  
I like your idea on rewiring a desk lamp to 12v.  Great idea, which I may steal!

Bill

ETA:  My wife bought USB powered white LED string for Christmas lights, which I may use on my portable HF setup.

Good lord, you and I must be twins separated at birth.