Considering adding an inverter to the dual battery setup in my '88
Westy. I have my eye on the Coleman Powermate 800. I have a couple of
general questions:

1.) Is an inverter on all the time if connected to my second battery,
or do they generally have an on/off switch? The concern here is that
if it's on all the time, the inverter's cooling fan (if any) might
come on intermittently during the night when I'm trying to sleep.

2.) Power consumption is dictated solely by what is connected to the
inverter, and not the wattage of the inverter itself, correct? IOW, a
Powermate 1200 won't drain my battery any faster than a Powermate 800
if they each had the same items attached to them, correct?

3.) Any problems/issues with permanently mounting an inverter to
either side of the stove? Seems like that would be an ideal place to
plug in the laptop, cell phone, etc.

4.) Finally, would the secondary battery (Optima deep-cycle marine)
last long enough, assuming fully charged, to watch a long-ish (say, 3
hour) DVD?

Thanks for any help,
Chris
'88 Westy, "Rocinante"