Okay, but hyping up vampire loads like they're the end of the world ignores how much energy smart devices save elsewhere! @the_joel made a good point about most thermostats sipping power, not guzzling it. The whole point of a smart thermostat is to optimize heating and cooling, which slashes your main energy use dramatically. Constantly unplugging things is a hassle that most folks won't stick with, and the actual standby waste is often pennies a month. We should celebrate tech that makes efficiency automatic, not scare people away from it because of a few watts in standby. The convenience and long term savings from automation far outweigh hunting down every phantom load.