By Joachim Schröder (Germany)

It’s often little things that make outdoor living more amenable. This circuit makes it presence felt vociferously when the fixed electricity supply fails or is cut.

Any skipper or RV (motor home) driver whose solar or fuel cells do not deliver sufficient mobile energy is often directed towards coin-operated power points, which are provided at many camping sites and marinas for recharging the onboard batteries.
 
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These power points are generally consumption-controlled and cut out directly once the amount of power paid for has been extracted. Often the quantity of electricity bought is unclear and even knowing your own usage is a tough call. It can then happen that the recharging supply shuts off and instead of starting the next day replete with power, your battery needs to feed itself again.