19 ms·
So, not saying this is the main driver here, but just wondering: with a lot of people working from home, rather than an office building, it becomes relevant whi
by rossdavidh 6y ago
So, not saying this is the main driver here, but just wondering: with a lot of people working from home, rather than an office building, it becomes relevant which is more efficient to cool. I have to think that it is more efficient to cool a single, larger building than many smaller ones? Again, not saying it's the primary reason, just mentioning that it could be a contributing factor.
- mdorazio 6y agoThat's a good point, and it's probably worth digging into. It's actually going to depend on a few factors, though. Off the top of my head: are office buildings running HVAC systems at significantly higher temps than they would otherwise have been? How many people working from home actually have A/C? How much more efficient are large A/C systems in comparison to home units? I have a feeling that offices that are "empty" are still running their A/C systems and lighting at some level, and then you have some portion of WFH people also running those things at home, so overall demand is higher than it was when most office workers were actually in the office.
- rossdavidh 6y agoI think also that, although the lighting may often be on in empty offices, the computers (and body heat) are lower, or missing entirely, so the offices aren't having to work very hard. However, all that load has shifted back to WFH, not gone away, so now the same amount of heat is being handled by less efficient A/Cs, in smaller buildings. All speculative, though, and probably not the main driver, I admit.