Patent ID: 7952233

Claim:
A lavatory system comprising: at least one fixture; a control system configured to control a flow of fluid to the at least one fixture; an energy storage element coupled to the control system and configured to power the control system for operating the at least one fixture; a first power source and a second power source, the first power source and the second source being electrically coupled to each other and configured to charge the energy storage element; and a power management system electrically coupled to the first power source and the second power source to control the charging of the energy storage, the power management system comprising: a switch configured to change the electrical coupling of the first power source and the second power source between a first arrangement in which the first power source and the second power source are electrically coupled to each other in parallel and a second arrangement in which the first power source and the second power source are electrically coupled to each other in series, wherein the electrical coupling of the first power source and the second power source is changed from the first arrangement to the second arrangement to accelerate a charge time of the energy storage element, the charge time being an amount of time required to provide the energy storage element with a charge sufficient to operate the at least one fixture.