Huh, good idea, i ran a quick test:
457000 471000 >no polling
470000 484000 >0.1s
522000 541000 >0.01s
This is the output of the battery current file, with the MIN/MAX value. There seems to be a trend:
The current always on polling script accounts for 2% of the total power usage.
But take it with a grain of salt, because this number is not averaged and neither does it stay constant over reboots.
Fluctuations of single % need to be monitored for much longer than i did, and with a proper tool, my sys monitor script isnt exactly made for this.
Also note that the sleep command stands for minimal wait time between polls, 0.1 is NOT 10 times as much as 0.01 in this case because it does not count the time for the poll itself in.
So you cant just double polling amounts and assume it takes double the power.
Edit: No wait, my monitor is written in Löve using software rendering doing a complete system monitor polling itself.
I was NOT idle so i cannot use the first number to guess a percentage.
The real number, should be much worse...