Drain on batteries when inverter and battery is off.

I have had a Triplite for 10 years. It had always had a slight drain on the batteries.  When it is on, the unit cycles the 120 volts on and off looking for a  load on the outlets.
My solution was to turn the switch on the unit off at all times unless I needed the 120 volt outlets.

Both of our TVs turned off go into a standby mode so they still use a small amount of 110V, as does our GFI outlet.  This kept our Tripp-Lite activate, running at 12 amp hours for no good reason.  With our PC, it is best for me to completely turn off the inverter (using the little switch on the inverter itself) until we want 110V from the batteries, or an external 110V source is available to charge the batteries.  When the Tripp-Lite is shut off, the batteries still get charged when the main Ford engine is running.

For all here with solar panels.....

I read an article maybe a year ago about solar panels.  I was taken-back by how poorly a solar panel functions with the slightest shadow cast on it.  A small shadow cast on the corner of a panel reduced it's output by ~90%.  A shadow of ~15-20% on the solar panel rendered it completely ineffective.  To you with solar panels, would you say that is fairly accurate?  I wonder if solar panels today are better than the ones used in the case study.

There was a time I wondered if we could benefit from a solar panel, but any such thought was put to rest after reading that because we seek shady camp sites, and it is only when parked for days or a week at campsites where I'd want a solar panel to do it's job.  I don't want to setup a panel on a tripod either.  It's too much to carry along and too much fuss for our travel style.

I could see having an array of panels being very useful if boon-dock camping in the desert for days on a regular basis.  But for us shade-seekers, solar panels would be a bad investment.

Ron, we got our 2552 new last February with 2 factory-installed solar panels on the roof. I specified the Bogart Engineering solar controller and TriMetric battery monitor, which Phoenix installed. These make it easy to watch the amps as they come and go from the coach batteries. Since getting the rig, we've lived in it for 6 moths in California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Perhaps a quarter of our nights have been without hook-ups. Since I also specified a NovaKool RFU9000 electric-only refrigerator, it's been important to keep the batteries charged enough so our food and medications stay cool.  The fridge takes 5½ amps when its compressor is running, perhaps a third of the time. The solar panels have kept things going with no problem except for a few times when we stayed for more than one night in the forest in deep shade. I ran the AC generator for a bit after the first night.
The panels charge the batteries at at least a few amps anytime there's daylight, even when it's heavily overcast. Shadows across part of the panels diminish their output somewhat, but nowhere near as much as I've seen reported by some. My guess is that the performance of partly shaded panels depends on the panel type and how the individual cells are connected.
John

Shadows across part of the panels diminish their output somewhat, but nowhere near as much as I've seen reported by some. My guess is that the performance of partly shaded panels depends on the panel type and how the individual cells are connected.
John

So apparently some panels are much better than others with regards to shadows cast from any nearby thing.

John ( McDuck ), thanks for the real world evaluation on your solar system . I'm not big on the technical aspects, of which there are many views , but a 1st hand account works best for me . Do you use or did you use your generator much on your trip ? We have solar on our Trend and it has kept up with whatever demand we've needed , 1 panel and 2 agm batteries , only on 2 occasions have I started engine to top off batteries and only for about 15 minutes each time. Even on not so sunny days and or with shade , it has always kept us going.
I have considered NOT having a generator and installing 2 extra agm batteries in place of it , if that's doable . Only time I would miss not having a gen is IF it was way warm and needed a/c on, but we don't dry camp a ton either and the engine is always there too .
Like the idea of a NovaKool  fridge too , our 3 way has temp swings when it gets pretty warm out , does the outside venting grill go away when getting that fridge , both or just 1 ? 
 Thanks , Pappy !

Hi Pappy,
No, we haven't used the AC generator very much, though there have been a few times I was glad to have it. For example, when we stopped for lunch in Folsom, CA, last July it was 100 degrees out and the only convenient parking was in full sun. I was glad to start up the generator to run the air conditioning.  Maybe half the running hours we have on the generator are from firing it up once a month under load for an hour, as recommended by Cummins.
Running the truck engine also charges the coach batteries, of course, but not as quickly as AC from shore power or the AC generator.
Our coach batteries are the two beefy 6-volt ones Phoenix installs as standard equipment.
The NovaKool electric-only fridge needs no outside venting, so I asked Phoenix not to cut their usual holes in the side wall for a propane-fired fridge. Fewer holes is better. All service access is inside the rig, through the removable panel below the fridge door. The fridge did give me fits for a while with an infrequent intermittent failure which took me months to track down. Every time I'd remove the access panel to troubleshoot, it would start working. (My wife said all I had to do was wave my screwdriver near it to scare it.) I finally traced the problem to its small optional ventilation fan, which would occasionally fail to start, draw excessive current, and cause the controller to shut down. Since I've replaced the fan, it's been very reliable.
Like other small fridges, this one has only a single thermostat, located in its main compartment. I does OK in warm weather, but when it's cold inside the rig, the compressor doesn't need to run much to keep the main compartment cold. This has the unfortunate side effect of allowing the temperature in the separate freezer to increase. I guess this is nature's way of suggesting that maybe I don't need to drive around the country with ice cream in arm's reach, which just makes me get fat anyway.
John

Hi Pappy:
We just completed a 3 month trip to Alaska, the coast of Oregon, and Northern California this summer. I have a "standard" (if there is such a thing!) 2017, 2350 Sprinter with one solar panel that Phoenix installed. and standard refrigerator.  We dry camped for a week at the furtherest campground in Denali, and only ran the generator once to used the microwave.  The rest of the time (coffee pot, etc.,) we had plenty of power. I would guess 1/3 of the other nights involved dry camping as well.  Of course Alaska had a lot of sun, and, for much of the trip we were driving 200 miles or so, so the batteries stayed up.  In short, I'm very happy with the solar, and, while I would have preferred 2 panels, 1 seems to get us by.

Jack

Jack, Thanks for the lowdown on the solar, we rather envy the trip you took , looking forward to getting northwest . Seems we don't do a big stretch at a time either , 2 to maybe a 6 hour hike..she likes to be in before the street lights go on .

John , I always get that sinking feeling that w/o a generator there will be that 1 time we could use it . Read alot of good reviews on the NovaKool , have to re check that single thermostat deal . Think if you don't wanna get fat you should drive the van more , sounds like your sitting too close to the fridge ??   Thanks for the response !

PS.. any mpg reports worth mentioning ?

Running the truck engine also charges the coach batteries, of course, but not as quickly as AC from shore power or the AC generator.
Our coach batteries are the two beefy 6-volt ones Phoenix installs as standard equipment.

I found driving our PC daily, even if only for a half hour in each direction, does wonders for charging the house batteries.  It's sitting at a campsite for a week without starting the Ford engine (and no solar) is when our batteries need to be watched closely.