How does the ignition key work?

[Mathter]

I've had cars for years and years and often wondered about his question but never had gizmos in the car that needed power, so never bothered to find out. However, now I do.

When you put your key in the ignition there are four postions which I assume are as follows:
Lock - Puts the steering lock on
ACC - Powers the accessories, in my case the electric blinds
On - Does all the tests, preheat and gives power to the the roof
Start - starts the engine.

Simple! But my question is, if you were to leave the key in the ACC position (or even the On position for that matter) how much power would it draw? In other words, can I leave the key in the ACC position when it gets dark at 6.00pm to enable me to open the doorblind from the rear of the car to go to the loo outside and open all the blinds when I wake up after a good nights sleep at 9.00am?

And whilst I'm vaguely on the subject, does anyone know roughly how long I could run my car stereo and the middle strip light for before I could expect to have problems starting the engine?

Thanks...

[kit]

Simple! But my question is, if you were to leave the key in the ACC position (or even the On position for that matter) how much power would it draw? In other words, can I leave the key in the ACC position when it gets dark at 6.00pm to enable me to open the doorblind from the rear of the car to go to the loo outside and open all the blinds when I wake up after a good nights sleep at 9.00am?

Yes you can without fear of discharging your engine battery...the downside being you can't remove the ignition key from the lock

However I would not endorse leaving key in the ON position.

[Ginge]

If you just need the key in to open the blinds, why not remove the key and just open the blinds manually. We have done this many times and it does not affect the blind mechanism at all, I think they are designed to be used manually or electrically and I am sure there is another post on the forum of the same thing.

Tony

[Dave up north]

I agree. I gave my sister a right bollocking when she was looking round my Bongo
"OOh, look. Its got blinds", said she. Then grabbed them and tugged them down.
"Oy, you silly mare. They are lectric", shouted me, before burning her house down and throwing her kids off the roof.

Imagine my embarrassment when Waycar showed me that this is normal and doesnt damage them in any way. (Well, except they get a bit grubby if you finger them too much.

How silly I must have looked doing the limbo dance when going to the loo in the night