LED Question.

[txmazdaspeed]

I used to have LED lights in the interior for the map lights and dome light. I noticed that they were staying on but were very dim. I know they don't draw a lot of power but do they draw enough power to drain the battery of about 1 volt in an 9 hour time span? Thanks for any info in advance.

 

[bdd]

I don't know how much they draw .. but I had this same thing happen when I was wiring my LED door sills to my map lights. Anytime I had my maplight/sunroof plug undone, mine would come on too, like there was some kind of circuitry mess up when that was out of the loop. I am not a big electrical guy .. maybe someone else knows why this happens.

 

[BrianG]

A typical LED draws between 15-30mA (0.015 to 0.03 amps) of current, depending on the color and brightness. Over 9 hours, thats 270mAh. A car battery has a much higher capacity. However, over time, this steady drain can cause drainage.

It's hard to know why the map light would stay dimly lit all the time, as there can be several different scenarios depnding on how things are wired in the car. Sometimes, the map light ground is switched, and if the LED is placed at the wire of the switch/light junction, enough current will flow through the LED to light the stock dome light and LED, albeit dimly, even with the switch open. It's not messed up, it's just how car is wired and how the LED is added to the circuit. There is a way to hook up LEDs so everything works right, but I haven't played with it yet, nor looked at the way everything is wired to offer more advice.

 

[txmazdaspeed]

Thanks guys for your input. Thanks BrianG for the indepth info. I think I will put them back in and just put the switch in the off position when I'm not using them. I mainly just put them in for show anyway. I just love the way those damn lights look at night! Thanks again guys and if anyone else has any more input, I would love to hear it.