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I switch mine on when needed. Can't see it doing any harm, other than draining the batteries, but they will be topped up by the alternator, which will have to work harder and will probably, therefore, use more diesel.

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3 minutes ago, dreadnought said:

hi all,when out cruising would it be ok to leave the inverter running all day, or just switch it on when needed,many thanks

You can leave it on all day if you wish, why would you want to leave it on if you're not using it ? Anything that consumes power won't help you're battery charging regime. I always switch mine off when not using it.

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3 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Unusually, the response appears to be unanimous.

Just to be different, we only switch ours on when it's needed. Something to do with the 3A standby current .....

 

 

(Of course, another option would be to change the inverter)

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24 minutes ago, Iain_S said:

Just to be different, we only switch ours on when it's needed. Something to do with the 3A standby current .....

 

 

(Of course, another option would be to change the inverter)

Well this is a good point, ours has 0.75A standby current. Although whilst actually out crusiing (engine running) does 3A really matter?

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Many inverters have a 1 to  2 amp no load current ie just ticking over, this is 24 to 48 amp hours a day. A 12 volt fridge uses about 40 amp hours per day so a 230 volt fridge will use about 60 to 90 amp hours a day. Whilst this doesn't make much difference if running engine 8 hours a day, if only cruising for 3 hours a day you will not be fully charging your batteries and they will gradually lose capacity due to sulfation. Unless you  need to you should not run a big inverter all day for the sake of your batteries. Also many small inverters take 1 amp doing nothing. If you have 200 watts or more of solar panels these will usually compensate except when dull wet and miserable.

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