Parasitic Loss/Load

Hey everybody!
I'm currently interested in learning the impact of parasitic loss or load in electrical appliances such as battery chargers and fans. For those of you who don't know, parasitic load is the energy lost in an appliance when not in use. For battery chargers, it could be like leaving batteries in the charging station after they've been fully charged. Are there any good learning resources on parasitic loss? Google does not provide much help.
Thank you!
ParaChase

Here is a paper on the subject of Parasitic Loss in consumer electronics.

http://www.fsec.ucf.edu/en/publications/html/FSEC-PF-344-98/