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People who work from home all the time ‘cut emissions by 54%’ against those in office
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2023
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Work Reform
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I find this quite surprising. When I’m working from home during the winter, I’m heating a lot of the house that would normally be unheated.
I would have assumed that bringing multiple people together into a single heated space would have been more energy efficient
This is based in the US. I imagine a lot of that also comes from air con, very long commutes and other wasted office energy use.
From the article > The main causes of remote workers’ reduced emissions were less office energy use, as well as fewer emissions from a daily commute.
Again - I'm really surprised that net energy use is less for distributed workers (setting aside commmute energy use).
I believe, distributed power is cheaper. Smaller transformers, less drain on the power grid, etc. etc. In other words, I think it's less efficient, especially in the summer when body heat becomes a negative rather than a positive factor.
And offices aren't often great at adjusting thermostats when people are out of the office. So that larger space is often being heated/cooled 24/7
Also they cool down offices because "business clothes" mean pants and at least golf shirts but probably long sleeve shirts and maybe a tie for some reason. Meaning the men need to have it at 67 or so to not sweat balls and the women wind up wearing cardigans in August. Meanwhile i just try to keep it under 80 in my place, use a personal fan and maybe hang a little brain out of my short shorts while in a Zoom call.
There's so many other things to consider, including e.g. traffic
Yes, of course. But I’m calling out the one factor that they specifically talk about
What's more efficient? Heating a small home that id well insulated and geared towards economical energy use or heating massive empty spaces of a practically non-insulated office building with massive heaters while at the same times the homes are being heated? (Albeit to a lower temperature)
There’s a whole lot of assumptions there. Anyway, the report says I’m wrong.
I imagine a lot of people have the air on for indoor animals while they go to the office.