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Isn't it more productive to have a kitchen staff produce food for 1000s of people vs. every person ordering delivery, cooking for themselves, etc.? Surely cool

• Retric 5y ago
  > Isn't it more productive to have a kitchen staff produce food for 1000s of people vs. every person ordering delivery, cooking for themselves, etc.? Depends on the comparison, someone microwaving lunch at home or the office is basically identical. Restaurants can be more efficient than cooking at home, but for example the open air style refrigerators used in some restaurants have terrible energy efficiency. https://www.kitchenall.com/open-air-merchandisers.html?p=2 https://www.kitchenall.com/open-air-merchandisers.html?p=2 At the extreme end when talking out door heating for guest comfort etc restaurants can be shockingly bad because it’s generally the least important aspect of the business. > Surely cooling/heating 1000 separate homes would cost more than an office optimized for it. Depends, the comparison might be to not having an office and therefore not needing to heat or cool it at all. There is some opportunity to let empty homes get closer to ambient temperature and therefore reduce heat gain or loss, but it’s not clear cut. We can say that total electricity demand dropped in the pandemic which suggests WFH is likely more energy efficient even with empty office space. So, sure in some cases it’s better and in some cases worse, but that really doesn’t cover the commute costs.