There is currently a 'meme' circulating in the media here about turning off all appliances on 'standby mode' to save power - but the damn stupid things lose their clocks and won't work because they don't have a backup battery that we users can access to keep the clock alive when the power is off, so we are stuffed. About the only thing that will keep the clock going is the PC and some bedside alarm clocks.

I've set up my PC arrangement now so that with one switch I can turn off modems, printers, speakers, etc - these all have power packs that draw current even when the item is switched off anyway - it all adds up.