Bill wrote:

This thread has seemed to hit a nerve!

Nope, most are just rubbing your nose in your stupidity.

Why are so many people getting upset that I am working to eliminate "vampire loads" in my house and reduce my electric
bill?

No one is getting upset, just rubbing your nose in your stupidity.

Anyway here are the facts about "vampire power" for those who are interested in this (can be 5% of your electric bill
and 75% of the
power for electronic things is used while the devices are turned off!)....

Not with a single doorbell, stupid.

And just replacing the transformer with a modern switch mode wall wart
will save almost all the power it currently uses, tho it still isnt cost efficient.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standby_power