I added an accessory cigarette lighter/USB adapter to my car today. Due to some 1 dimensional thinking, I didn't consider anything other than wiring it to the existing cigarette lighter plug. So now I have this nice little power adapter so I can plug in more than one thing at a time, but it's got a little glowing ring light around the USB plugs. Question is, how much draw will this light have, will it be low enough that I don't have to worry about it killing my battery or should I pull it and re-wire so it's only powered when the car is on?

It is probably drawing about 25 milliamps (.025 amps) so it will probably run your battery down in, say, about 3 years. Larry

Thanks Larry, I think I can live with 3 years! Don't really care for the glowing light, but the charcoal and grey was such a nice match for the interior I couldn't resist

Old post, but I am curious as to how you did this. My current lighter plug is not working and I would like to know how you wired this in?

The current draw is probably a bit higher than that. More like 40-60 mA considering a blue led draws about 20-25 mA max (unless they are superbrights) and it looks like you have several leds in there to light up the whole ring. Unless it's a light pipe?? That would be pretty cool! Where did you get this? I'd love to grab one for my car

light pipe? maybe, likely no.
Light on scream to thieves...

On top of LEDs issues... USB charger draws XmA too, even w/o LEDs and nothing plugged in.
If/when you forget to pull the plug on a devise, can draw 0.5A or more per port plus Charger overhead.
USB 2.0 spec is 0.5A per port but device and charger uses Fast Charge spec then 0.8-0.9A per port. (USB 3.0 is 0.9A per port)

Edit, This load is on top of ECM and Radio standby power...

If drive every day or maybe week then dead battery is unlikely...
Storing month(s) could kill the battery.

"Dead" battery = 11.99V or less (Deep Cycle a bit less...)
"Dead" battery then might start the car but Starter, Fuel Pump, etc. draws More Amp to makeup the low Volts... Not good.
See my Cave, Battery and Electric Motors

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[This message has been edited by theogre (edited 05-17-2013).]

quote Originally posted by NetCam: Question is, how much draw will this light have, will it be low enough that I don't have to worry about it killing my battery or should I pull it and re-wire so it's only powered when the car is on?

quote Originally posted by theogre: On top of LEDs issues... USB charger draws XmA too, even w/o LEDs and nothing plugged in.

If in doubt, use a meter to measure the actual quiescent current draw. As theogre correctly points out, both the LEDs and the USB charger itself will draw power, even when there's nothing plugged into one of the USB ports.

If it were me I would just rewire the adapter so that it's powered when the ignition switch is in either the "run" or "accessory" positions. Is it possible to wire the LEDs and USB adapter separately from the 12-volt accessory outlets? If so, that would be even better. Be sure to put a fuse on any wire you add; it's a safety issue.

My suggestion....open the thing up and clip the wire going to the LED to disable the light. I have a similar one in the convertible...and although mine is wired to be only with the ignition, the blue LED drove me nuts while driving it. I was actually considering switching it over to being on full time...but now I am second guessing that after seeing it mentioned that the adapter draws a bit of power on it's own.

Any of that stuff does draw some power. The led used on the dash for factory alarms is on all the time and it probably dont run it down for at least a few weeks. On my Sebring I noticed I was being plauged with dead battery (orig and new) since I drive several cars. In the garage I generally leave trunks open or at least unlatched so I can get in them without digging out keys. I took out the trunk bulb since I dont reallly need it. It still kept going dead in 4-5 days. So I started just shutting the trunk to see what happened. After it sat a week, it hadnt drained any. I opened the trunk again and left it open as a test. Remember there is NO bulb. It went dead as before. It seems what I ended up finding is the flashing 'trunk open' icon was draining it. Unplugged that in the dash, left the trunk open for another week. No drain...all is well.