

Power Efficient Home Offices Can Save Money and Polar Bears - silicon_ooze
http://www.toptal.com/remote/power-efficient-home-offices-can-save-money-and-polar-bears

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jurko
Cramming a hundred people in tiny cubicles under fluorescent lighting is
cheaper than having individual offices for everyone, or home offices. Then
again, working from home or working from a crappy cubicle… No contest :)

More and more people are either working from home offices on a daily basis, or
bringing a lot of work home. The numbers are bound to go up, I mean it’s good
for employers and employees, probably good for public health, environment and
so on. There’s still a long way to go though.

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ge0rgekh0ury
Come to think of it, telecommuting and self-employment isn’t very power
efficient. Although people don’t drive to work, there’s really no big
incentive to use the most efficient devices. They cost a lot, and big
companies are more likely to embrace these new technologies and products. They
also get better pricing (they buy fleets of cars, hundreds of computers at a
time, sophisticated heating and air conditioning and so on).

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sax_63
What about installing a bunch of solar panels on the roof? It’s expensive and
they degrade over time, so is it worth it? I know many European governments
offer subsidies for sustainable energy investments, or cheap credit if you
want to make your home more efficient, but I’m still not sure it’s an option
for most people (it also depends on geography and a few other factors).

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stokic
For me, switching from "old school" light bulbs to LED and switching my old PC
with new MPB resulted in a visible drop in my electricity bill. It's not gonna
make me rich or anything but it's a good start and I after reading this I
believe I've contributed to saving baby polar bears too ;)

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bacinger
Integrated all in one desktops, or small desktops like the NUC should be a
good choice for many people. Of course, they can’t completely replace
traditional desktops for everyone, but they are fast enough for most. If you
don’t want to run games, edit video and so on, you can easily replace your
tower with small desktop like the NUC or Mac mini. I expect to see more of
them, along with more all in ones. Personally, I lean toward small desktops
rather than all in ones. They make more sense from a financial perspective.
They are easier to upgrade, repair or simply replace while keeping your old
monitor. Plus, there are loads of panel sizes to choose from, and more
resolutions including 4K.

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bnt
A lot of home users have already moved to laptops, but not all. People who are
into gaming will continue using desktops, along with all sorts of
professionals (designers and so on). I am talking about proper desktops,
towers with big motherboards, graphics cards and so on. These machines aren’t
going anywhere yet, there is simply no substitute. Most people I know still
use desktops in their home offices.

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bbeneschott
I want to know if there's a huge difference between charging your laptop and
running off of battery sometimes vs leaving it plugged in all the time - I
sometimes move to my couch or something to do some work, and maybe leaving the
charger behind is actually an additional cost

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silicon_ooze
As long as it's plugged in, a charger will waste some power, but when it's not
actually charging anything, the losses are negligible

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eselmanovic
The standard of living is different in different parts of the world. Even
relatively small savings can mean a lot in some countries. However, investing
in cutting edge efficiency can be prohibitively expensive if your household
income is $1000 or so. New PCs, monitors, AC units - they all cost the same no
matter where you live. Energy does not.

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devster23
The problem with hardware is that it’s already very efficient and things are
getting better. If you have a really old computer, yes, upgrade is probably
worth it. If you use laptops, I don’t think so. A lot of people stopped buying
desktops already, because laptops became so cheap (if you need big monitor,
you can always buy plug it in)

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dkuthy
I think it all depends on where you live and how much you pay already (as the
author pointed out). This is basically a guide for developed countries, with
very high power costs. Investing in home office efficiency in many parts of
the world won’t save you much money, and might not be worth it, although it is
good for the environment.

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hjr265
I doubt Nest and the Tesla battery will take off all over the world, maybe in
a decade or so, but not soon. However, I think smart sockets could be useful
if you want to save power without investing thousands of $$$

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dror_liebenthal
Any chance you can link any good posts on the cost/benefit of smart sockets
and their potential future use?

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mucalo
Love the article. Advice in there do show a way how easy it is to make a
little better organization of your living and work space for a lot of gain.

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arigatuso
That's what I call an useful post! My wife will be happy with all these ideas
to decrease our electricity bill.

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zladuric
Also, going to a coffee shop with a Chromebook is saving a lot of energy at
home, I'd say ;)

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hs2
very insightful and informative

