Of course there will be those for and against this so life goes on. When enough car owners kill their batteries from leaving devices plugged in and not turned off and campaign to demand a change, Detroit and maybe the foreign car manufacturers will modify these 'power outlets' so they become switched with the ignition key. With the population now educated to the toxic dangers of cigarettes, politcal winds quickly changed 'cigarette lighter socket' to 'accessory power outlet'. What's termed 'power outlets' are really cigarette lighter sockets from a bygone era of the luxury to have an electric lighter for smokers. Once electronic devices are left plugged in to the accessory power outlets and left turned on, the risk of killing car batteries rises as these devices are supposed to be turned off. This was all calculated long ago to reduce the unnecessary current drain when the engine is shut down and not run for a few weeks. Normal factory installed items like the radio, anti-theft system, remote start, remote keyless entry, etc., all add up to less than 0.05 amp/50 milliamps/50 thousandths of an amp to keep memory alive and receiving circuits running for the remotes. Some devices left ON overnight may not kill a brand new battery while older batteries will drop dead as well as having additional devices plugged in and powered up to exacerbate battery drain. Parasitic current use, when all the devices are added together that exceed guidelines, can eventually kill a battery if not understood. Presuming this is the maximum power drawn from the battery from this one device.Īnything drawing more than 0.1 amp/100 milliamps/a tenth of an amp becomes a battery draining device and if left on all night can cause a dead battery depending on battery state. Simple math power = voltage x current so current use = power divided by voltage.ĥ watts divided by 12 volts = 0.41 amp, almost a half amp

2007 saturn aura cigarette lighter fuse