Somebody a couple years ago, not sure of the context now (might have been an argument about whether distributed protein-folding simulations are worthwhile?): "So if we assume that a computer consumes 200W..."
Me: *looks at per-appliance energy-usage spreadsheet from that time we borrowed a home energy monitor*
Laptop (reading articles): 15W
Laptop (watching videos): 22W
Me: ????
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A couple months ago, I used a carbon-footprint calculator aimed at Ontarians. I fed it a year's worth of fuel-consumption data from our electric and natural-gas bills, and it estimated our home-related emissions at 63% of the average four-person household.
The thing is, I was really expecting our home emissions to be significantly *above* average.
* Our home is...not *as* poorly insulated as it used to be, but still not very good.
* The central heating and cooling were retrofitted and can't reach all areas of the house very well, so we have to supplement with three space heaters in the winter and a window air-conditioning unit in the summer.
* Said window unit is ~20 years old. The refrigerator is ~14 (and I hear they've made a lot of efficiency improvements to refrigerators in the last decade). The secondary freezer and the furnace are both ~28. I don't even *know* how old the tertiary freezer is: we got it at least third-hand.
* (Also we *have* secondary and tertiary freezers consuming electricity, though one of them is in the basement (a relatively cool area) and one of them is in an unheated part of the house.)
* We can't turn the heat (or cooling) down when nobody's home, because there is almost always somebody home (and this is not a new thing for 2020: it's been the case for years).
* The furnace, water-heater, and dryer are all gas-heated.
And yet, despite everything we have going against us, apparently we are way below average?
Am...am I living in some kind of parallel universe?
no subject
Somebody a couple years ago, not sure of the context now (might have been an argument about whether distributed protein-folding simulations are worthwhile?): "So if we assume that a computer consumes 200W..."
Me: *looks at per-appliance energy-usage spreadsheet from that time we borrowed a home energy monitor*
Laptop (reading articles): 15W
Laptop (watching videos): 22W
Me: ????
---
A couple months ago, I used a carbon-footprint calculator aimed at Ontarians. I fed it a year's worth of fuel-consumption data from our electric and natural-gas bills, and it estimated our home-related emissions at 63% of the average four-person household.
The thing is, I was really expecting our home emissions to be significantly *above* average.
* Our home is...not *as* poorly insulated as it used to be, but still not very good.
* The central heating and cooling were retrofitted and can't reach all areas of the house very well, so we have to supplement with three space heaters in the winter and a window air-conditioning unit in the summer.
* Said window unit is ~20 years old. The refrigerator is ~14 (and I hear they've made a lot of efficiency improvements to refrigerators in the last decade). The secondary freezer and the furnace are both ~28. I don't even *know* how old the tertiary freezer is: we got it at least third-hand.
* (Also we *have* secondary and tertiary freezers consuming electricity, though one of them is in the basement (a relatively cool area) and one of them is in an unheated part of the house.)
* We can't turn the heat (or cooling) down when nobody's home, because there is almost always somebody home (and this is not a new thing for 2020: it's been the case for years).
* The furnace, water-heater, and dryer are all gas-heated.
And yet, despite everything we have going against us, apparently we are way below average?
Am...am I living in some kind of parallel universe?