Quote:
Originally Posted by ApK
I know it's only been a few days, but it just occured to me that I'm not going let me Kindle sit unused for a week to test this. 
So after a few days with little use, and no light or wireless use at all, I show one thin sliver down on the battery indicator. As the indicator was full, but not freshly topped off when I started observing, that seems fairly reasonable. So for me, no sign so far of excessive drain just for keeping the Kindle in the lighted cover. Whew!
I'll keep an eye on it in any case. (No pun intended.)
ApK |
From my experience, when the kindle is in its sleep mode (displaying a dead author), there is no voltage over the clips. As far as I can tell with my equipment, the light drains exactly no power when not in use. Additionally, there appears to be some sort of physical switch that is engaged when the light is pulled out from the cover. If this switch is open, it is unlikely that the cover is drawing any power unless there is a short somewhere. However, if there was a short, the lights wouldn't work and your kindle's battery would be drained completely in short order.
The battery will normally lose charge over time when sitting unused, that is to be expected of most rechargeable lithium batteries.
The only way to be 100% sure would be to pop a logging amp-meter between the load (light) and the power (kindle) and let is sit for a few days. But that is a little excessive given what can be observed from the design of the cover and the voltage over the clips when the device is off.