Not all big inverters are so efficient. My PowerJack was a pig in stand by or running the TV/sat. There was a considerable savings using the 150w MSW inverter especially over night. Then again as mentioned, it meant minutes to the solar system.
Don't most inverters have their idle draw and efficiency in their specs?
Until we got the satellite we didn't need a inverter for TV/DVD. We used a Toshiba 15 inch TV/DVD combo that uses a 120v brick that puts out 12v or a 12v cord I made myself. It's rated for 65w, I can test that with the killawatt at 120v, see how many amps the 150w MSW inverter pulls running it vs running it direct on 12v. (this weekend)
Now this may not be all microwaves but when ours is just on, it pulls power charging something up. I found that out when we plugged the shore cord into a 500w inverter to run the TV and charge phones. I turned on the breaker to the microwave and set the clock only to have the power go out a few minutes later. Turned the breaker to the MW back off and reset the inverter and it never went out again. Now we don't have the microwave breaker on unless it's in use even with the big bank, etc.
