Hi all,

Im always really careful that i unplug 12v sockes when i leave the car due to worries ill end up with a flat battery.

Im not too worried about small things such as a mobile phone but i am a bit paranoid when i have cool box plugged in the boot which pulls a bit more power.

With all of the modern gubbins in a cars computer does it not have the ability to kill power to the sockets when the battery drains to a certain level ..... or does permament live really mean its hard wired to the battery with no monitoring ?

Cheers

Your car will have a sophisticated battery monitoring system that can switch off certain components to leave enough charge o start the car. Unfortunately the 12V sockets are not monitored and you could potentially flatten the battery.

You could plug the cool box into something like this, and there are some models that you can set the cut-off Voltage.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dometic-Coolpower-Voltage-Monitor-Universal/dp/B00I5DAHNO

I used a similar device to this after I flattened a car battery with a cool box in rural France. Fortunately the camp site manager competently jump started my car.

IIRC the interior lights and the radio will shut down automatically.

The sidelights are not monitored/protected either as I found to my cost with my brand new battery

 

Makes sense for an emergency though.