Inverters

My inverter has 3 states: ON, OFF, Standby

OFF it draws NO current
Standby it draws SOME current
ON it draws more current.

So the answer to your question is "YES".. However that said.. I have over 500 amp hours of battery, so if the ONLY current draw was the inverter.. it would take over a week of having it turned on with no load to run 'em down.

Loaded.. Well, it is a 2,000 watt inverter (That means it can suck over 180 amps).

Inverter off=no battery drain.
Inverter on=battery drain(even with the inverter not powering anything)

Our Morningstar SureSine has a self draw of 55mA on stand by.

Hi,

My Cobra draws 0.5 amps at idle. Some high end inverters "go to sleep" and draw only one or two watts. Inverters, when in use, are inherently not likely to be more than about 90% efficient. PSW are less efficient in general than MSW units.

I tend to switch off my inverter when I'm not inside in the summer time. In the winter that's a different story as I power several devices to prevent freezing.

Overnight while traveling..not to big a deal
Always on while dry camping it will add up

We full-time we have two inverters, we never turn them off
One powers the residential fridge, the other the TV. The residential lights small 120v fans and all the chargers for are electronic goodies

We have the battery bank and solar for this and two generators

I think my Magnum pure sine wave MS2800 is rated at <35W when idle.

You can look up the "stand by" draw for most inverters. If not on shore power, turn it off when not using it. That amp or two adds up if you have to run the generator to replace them.

No. They will draw an amp or two at rest, which, over a few weeks wouldn't be good.