george (dicegeorge) coughed up some electrons that declared:




Cnnected from L to E a neon on a 220k resistor will add in the region
of 0.7mA. An ultrabright LED can be run off much less than 1mA with
decent light output. And if you run it from a CR dropper the power
diss would be even tinier. The LED would need a rectifier of course.


NT
Wouldnt this add to RCD trip current?

Why not wire it between L and N?

And how does the switchlite work?
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/DT2503A.html
it glows when not switched on,
but has no Neutral or Earth connection,
is it like my neon mains testing screwdriver?

No - that neon goes across the switch and uses the load as a relative
neutral when switched off - which works well with a resistive load.
Electronic loads, eg a CFL are a different story but if the current is low
enough you may get away with it. In other cases you can get weird effects
like the CFL flashing.