My roommate/landlord likes this stuff. I cost him a whole $0.02 the other day for leaving 3 26 watt CFL bulbs in the garage on for an hour. It seems a little overboard to me to try and save so little money over such a long period of time. $500 over 30 years? $500 is a single student loan payment or rent!

I'm the person that will gladly go across the street to the empty gas station and pay an extra $0.25 a fill up (or $1.00 on the credit card ($0.10 diff for using CC) ) ($13/yr, and $52/yr respectively) so that I'm not sitting in the middle of the road, risking my car, $500 car insurance deductible, and inconvenience if I get hit, waiting to get into the $0.02 cheaper gas station.

I have to admit though, I'm amazed that a digital clock uses 10 Watts on a stove! I've heard of vampire electronics, but that seems excessive.

Am I missing something here? Most people I know that do this do it for the money aspect, not something intangible like "the environment". With such little savings over the short term, it doesn't seem to be able to cause a noticeable shift in being able to spend that money somewhere else.