Standbye power-it's not a good thing. "...estimated that standby power accounted for approximately 5% of total residential electricity consumption in America, “...more than $3 billion in annual energy costs”...national residential electricity consumption in 2004 was 1.29 billion megawatt hours (MWh)—5% of which is 64m MWh. The wasted energy...is equivalent to the output of 18 typical power stations.""