• HeartyBeast@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    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

    • CustodialTeapot@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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.

      • HeartyBeast@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        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).

        • treefrog@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          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

          • anarchrist@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 year ago

            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.

        • JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl
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          1 year ago

          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)

    • BonfireOvDreams
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      1 year ago

      I imagine a lot of people have the air on for indoor animals while they go to the office.