Newer switching regulator designs have a much lower standby power (although they do draw something) compared to older transformer designs. Still, the vast majority of “wall warts” out there are of the older, cheaper designs, and draw significant standby power.
You think this is stupid until you find out your TVs tube has gone blooey. Without some sort of indicator light, you don’t know if it’s the power button that’s bad, or the tube (or whatever, if you have an LCD or plasma)
I’m far less interested in whether a turned-off device uses zero or non-zero power than I am in whether or not it uses significant or insignificant power. Like beowulff point out, the power draw of tiny LED’s is non-zero but insignificant. Chasing after stuff like that has a very low reward/effort ratio.
We actually use the microwave clock in our kitchen. If we unplugged it when not in use, we’d probably buy another clock to replace it. :smack:
I say all of this as somebody who has invested basically zero time/effort in chasing down phantom power drains in my residence, though, so I certainly have some lower-hanging fruit to pick first. We also have, I think, exactly ONE compact fluorescent bulb in the whole place…
I was very annoyed to find that my new Yamaha AV receiver draws **70 watts **in standby mode. That’s a lot of power just to wait for a remote control command!