GEAR FOCUS

SIX OF THE BEST 240V PORTABLE POWER PACKS

- PHIL SAMPSON

PHIL SAMPSON CHECKS OUT PORTABLE POWER STATIONS THAT DELIVER 240V MAINS POWER

When Joni Mitchell sang 'You don't know what you've got till it's gone' in her iconic song Big Yellow Taxi, she could have been singing about shore power. For as every yacht owner without an onboard generator discovers, the 240V AC mains supply we take for granted ashore becomes a distant dream whenever you leave the marina. Without mains power to recharge laptops and run kettles, microwaves, and the like, life becomes more restricted.

While some might view 240V at sea as something of a luxury - after all, plenty of us have got by without it up until now - anyone who has spent an extended time on the water, especially at anchor without the engines running, will know that DC battery power is very much a finite resource. Cabin and cockpit lights, fridges and fans, or firing up the heater for a chilly night onboard, all take a battery-draining toll.

While a fully plumbed-in auxiliary generator provides the solution for larger yachts, the same does not hold true for smaller craft where engine room space and finances are often at a premium. Here, owners seeking mains power have traditionally either carried a portable genset usually a low-powered, noisy, smelly petrol-fuelled unit or have simply gone without.