Researching adding an inverter

[AZCactus]

Researching adding an inverter
1st – I am a newbie – only owned the motor home since April – bought it new – it’s entry level and did not come standard with an inverter.
My question – We have boondocked in the desert for 4 days at a time (in the Spring) – if we wanted the A/C or the microwave we fired up the gen for a while. The only thing I missed was watching the TV for a while in the evening when I didn’t want to run the gen and annoy our friends parked in the same area.
Why would I need more than a 200 watt inverter (for the TV\DVD)? I read people putting in very large inverters 2500 – 3000 watts – are they swapping the fridge to AC, the water heater to AC, or running the microwave and A/C off the batteries?
With the lighting, water pump, bath fan and control circuits 12VT; and the fridge, stove, furnace, and water heater on propane – why would I need a large inverter and large battery bank? What are people running on 120VTs? What am I missing…

[az bound]

Most TVs draw 150 watts so a dedicated 200 watt should be fine.
Many of us have the larger inverters for multiple TVs, and other appliances ie. residential refrigerator, garbage disposal and countertop applliances.

[Walt Bennett]

As far as the TV, it depends on the size - check out the sticker. If you're just using the house batteries it came with, you don't want much of an inverter anyway as they don't have that much capacity. I'm gradually putting a 400w solar system in our 5er. Really only wanted a 2kw inverter to be able to run the microwave occasionally and the 42" flatscreen & home theater system, lights, etc. off 4 ea 6v deep cycle batteries. (I don't "camp" anymore!) I found a 3kw inverter on eBay for a really (REALLY) good price, so that's what I'm installing. Yes, it's overkill - I could run our 15k btu AC with it for about 30 minutes - but for the money, I'm happy. Still have to get the batteries, but the total cost of my system should run well under $3k.