Re:Google employees who work from home could lose money
by Retric on Tuesday August 10, 2021 @11:03AM
(#28129706)
> Assuming usage of cars. Leave the US and generally public transportation is a thing used by most people. The trains/trams/buses still travel the same routes and times as before-pandemic times.
Across the US and presumably the world mass transit reduced service in response to reduced ridership. If WFH becomes more common that will definitely cover more areas as schedules very much are based on demand. Ex: https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2020/03/24/coronavirus-mta-subw...
> IMO it's futile to even try to calculate this value globally.
Electricity is directly measured at the grid level and 2020 saw a clear reduction, how much of that relates to WFH is more questionable.
Re:Google employees who work from home could lose money
by ghaff on Tuesday August 10, 2021 @11:25AM
(#28129967)
And then people stop using it as much and, in many cases, drive instead because transit becomes less attractive.
Re:Google employees who work from home could lose money
by Retric on Tuesday August 10, 2021 @12:21PM
(#28130733)
Most people I know avoid using cramped rush hour transit when they can. So overall more steady state operation is likely to make public transit more appealing. Even if they cut back from a train every 8 minutes to one every 15 during rush hour.
> Home temperature is fairly consistent over the day.
You must live in a mild climate where the outside temperature doesn't change much because everywhere I've lived in the world, you constantly turn on/off heating/fans/air-conditioning depending on the season and time of day.
> Commuting costs completely dominate in terms of energy costs.
Assuming usage of cars. Leave the US and generally public transportation is a thing used by most people. The trains/trams/buses still travel the same routes and times as before-pandemic times.
> The running the same computer hardware at home or the office
Why is that? My PCs at work each use ~150W and I never turn them off because Wake-On-Lan doesn't always work. I presume it's the same for most of my 700 co-workers who also WFH. That's a lot of KW and not to be scoffed at.
> Radio’s use minimal electricity ~25w
You are taking the minimal example of radio. I would guess that more than a negligible amount of people have something more substantial at home which uses more than 25w (including amp/speakers/wifi to connect to Alexa, etc), granted it's probably still not much and could even balance out with people who don't listen to radio while working? Who knows, IMO it's futile to even try to calculate this value globally.