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there is more than this over simplification. My home power bill went up, i all of a sudden had to heat/cool my house in time when i normally didn't. I know for

there is more than this over simplification. My home power bill went up, i all of a sudden had to heat/cool my house in time when i normally didn't. I know for a fact that the office continued to heat/cool the office because there was a skeleton crew there. I think there are going to need to be a lot more research into this.

reidjs 6y ago
Have you considered looking into better insulating your home or alternative ways of staying warm than blasting the heat? I wear a sweater, socks, and sweats while I’m working from home. I guess this is heavily dependent where you live, though.
- Geezus_42 6y ago
  That's great when it's cold. Not so much when you live in an area that will soon have temperatures >100° every day for the next few months. I will deal with being a bit warm but I do not enjoy sweating all day while I'm just sitting at my desk. Even now with Temps getting into the 90s it would be very uncomfortable to not run the A/C even with fans spinning at full speed.
marcosdumay 6y ago
The only reason there's an office kept acclimatized somewhere is because the WFH was a temporary measure. If it's definitive, the office will shrink quite quickly.
- JohnJamesRambo 6y ago
  I’d like to check the math though because I imagine heating and cooling a building with hundreds of people in it is much more efficient than heating and cooling all their homes all day.
  - kumarvvr 6y ago
    If you have someone living in your home, then your house is heated/cooled anyway. In those specific cases, energy use for office is a waste. I imagine atleast 50% of people working have someone at home while they are working.
    - JohnJamesRambo 6y ago
      Don’t tell me they are paying you enough where your spouse doesn’t have to work!
  - kumarvvr 6y ago
    Also, apart from building thermal management, energy is consumed in commutes. Associated energy costs of infrastructure maintenance, vehicle maintenance, energy costs for transport of fuels, etc.
  - mikewarot 6y ago
    >I imagine heating and cooling a building with hundreds of people in it is much more efficient than heating and cooling all their homes all day. What about the 20 mile commutes most of them have? That infrastructure and fuel use has to be added into the equation.
    - JohnJamesRambo 6y ago
      Sure but I thought we were just talking about office heating and cooling. Let’s add the medical costs of everyone being morbidly obese from work from home and the Covid 15 becoming the Covid 50 lbs. :)
      - swader999 6y ago
        Hard to work out on the commute unless it's by bike of course. All the extra free time makes it much easier to stick to the workout plan.
      - Godel_unicode 6y ago
GiorgioG 6y ago
I've been working from home for a better part 15 years and I second this. I bought Nest thermostats when we built our home a few years ago...In hindsight - I'm not entirely sure why: someone is almost always home (working or otherwise)!
908B64B197 6y ago
Some jurisdictions will let you deduct that from your taxes.
- WalterGR 6y ago
  I've heard that in the US, federal deductions related to a home office are a very common trigger of audits.
Causality1 6y ago
If your home power bill went up by more than you saved on transportation costs you have a severe insulation problem. Like, ten foot hole in an outer wall severe.
- donw 6y ago
  That explains how the grizzly bears keep getting in...
senectus1 6y ago
wow getting downvoted because of ? Yes it costs less to heat my home than to drive in, but thats not the point. I have two cars because we have to drive into work and drop/pickup kids. if we're WFH we dont need two cars, but i cant just dump one of then on a whim when WFH might end. Also the energy costs measurements are just mine. they're universal. We wasted so much energy in this scenario. Its just that the energy/resources were now both mine and the companies resources.
gnicholas 6y ago
There's actually an interesting point hidden in here, which is that in some areas the electricity billing is priced progressively. Your first X units are cheap, the next Y units are pricier, and anything after that are expensive. This is what we have with PG&E. It means that families like mine, where my wife and I work from home (including before the pandemic) pay a higher bill because we're treated as if we are consuming irresponsibly. But we don't actually use that much energy considering the fact that we are home all day long. Energy companies will hopefully adjust their tiers or find some other way to treat people who WFH equitably, not punitively. My understanding is that PG&E has done this to some extent already, but I don't know what they plan to do after near-global WFH ends.
- kumarvvr 6y ago
  Sounds like a good solar panel system will be economical for you.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]

reidjs 6y ago

Have you considered looking into better insulating your home or alternative ways of staying warm than blasting the heat? I wear a sweater, socks, and sweats while I’m working from home. I guess this is heavily dependent where you live, though.

Geezus_42 6y ago
That's great when it's cold. Not so much when you live in an area that will soon have temperatures >100° every day for the next few months. I will deal with being a bit warm but I do not enjoy sweating all day while I'm just sitting at my desk. Even now with Temps getting into the 90s it would be very uncomfortable to not run the A/C even with fans spinning at full speed.

marcosdumay 6y ago

The only reason there's an office kept acclimatized somewhere is because the WFH was a temporary measure. If it's definitive, the office will shrink quite quickly.

JohnJamesRambo 6y ago
I’d like to check the math though because I imagine heating and cooling a building with hundreds of people in it is much more efficient than heating and cooling all their homes all day.
- kumarvvr 6y ago
  If you have someone living in your home, then your house is heated/cooled anyway. In those specific cases, energy use for office is a waste. I imagine atleast 50% of people working have someone at home while they are working.
  - JohnJamesRambo 6y ago
    Don’t tell me they are paying you enough where your spouse doesn’t have to work!
- kumarvvr 6y ago
  Also, apart from building thermal management, energy is consumed in commutes. Associated energy costs of infrastructure maintenance, vehicle maintenance, energy costs for transport of fuels, etc.
- mikewarot 6y ago
  >I imagine heating and cooling a building with hundreds of people in it is much more efficient than heating and cooling all their homes all day. What about the 20 mile commutes most of them have? That infrastructure and fuel use has to be added into the equation.
  - JohnJamesRambo 6y ago
    Sure but I thought we were just talking about office heating and cooling. Let’s add the medical costs of everyone being morbidly obese from work from home and the Covid 15 becoming the Covid 50 lbs. :)
    - swader999 6y ago
      Hard to work out on the commute unless it's by bike of course. All the extra free time makes it much easier to stick to the workout plan.
    - Godel_unicode 6y ago

GiorgioG 6y ago

I've been working from home for a better part 15 years and I second this. I bought Nest thermostats when we built our home a few years ago...In hindsight - I'm not entirely sure why: someone is almost always home (working or otherwise)!

908B64B197 6y ago

Some jurisdictions will let you deduct that from your taxes.

WalterGR 6y ago
I've heard that in the US, federal deductions related to a home office are a very common trigger of audits.

Causality1 6y ago

If your home power bill went up by more than you saved on transportation costs you have a severe insulation problem. Like, ten foot hole in an outer wall severe.

donw 6y ago
That explains how the grizzly bears keep getting in...

senectus1 6y ago

wow getting downvoted because of ? Yes it costs less to heat my home than to drive in, but thats not the point. I have two cars because we have to drive into work and drop/pickup kids. if we're WFH we dont need two cars, but i cant just dump one of then on a whim when WFH might end. Also the energy costs measurements are just mine. they're universal. We wasted so much energy in this scenario. Its just that the energy/resources were now both mine and the companies resources.

gnicholas 6y ago

There's actually an interesting point hidden in here, which is that in some areas the electricity billing is priced progressively. Your first X units are cheap, the next Y units are pricier, and anything after that are expensive. This is what we have with PG&E. It means that families like mine, where my wife and I work from home (including before the pandemic) pay a higher bill because we're treated as if we are consuming irresponsibly. But we don't actually use that much energy considering the fact that we are home all day long. Energy companies will hopefully adjust their tiers or find some other way to treat people who WFH equitably, not punitively. My understanding is that PG&E has done this to some extent already, but I don't know what they plan to do after near-global WFH ends.

kumarvvr 6y ago
Sounds like a good solar panel system will be economical for you.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]