power consumption

Thanks Richard and Craig. To follow up, Yes I did understand everything Richard.
Now, for the better worded and more to the point question.

Does the system use more watts when it is off as opposed to actually playing and how can I find out the energy consumption when it is simply on and warm as opposed to playing and hot?

Thanks, jd

My spectral 360 amp uses 250 when just on according to the website. My Dmc 30 uses 8o watts. Given the above posts and todays prices in california that comes out to somewhere between 25 and 36 bucks a month to have it on. That is definitely noticeable. More importantly though for me is the guilt I feel when this stuff is on and using power when not being used. There are always two sides to this energy consumption problem. One is the mony it cost us and two is our responsiblity to decrease our consumption in this the most energy rapacious country in the world