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How does it compare to working from home as opposed to driving to the office? E.g. let's say I drive 10 miles a day to get to the office vs use an 8k TV at hom

How does it compare to working from home as opposed to driving to the office? E.g. let's say I drive 10 miles a day to get to the office vs use an 8k TV at home? If I go out of my way to work from home, would I be ethically ok to use 8k monitor? Back of the napkin it seems like 8k monitor would be 10x better than driving to the office?

maccard 2y ago
I don't think this is an honest question. There's no "fixed budget" of energy that is ethically ok to use. The parents point was that these devices are woefully inefficent no matter which way you look at them. The "best" thing to do would be neither, and is usually to just use the device you have - particularly for low power electronics as the impact of buying a new one is more than the impact of actually running the thing unless you run it 24/7/365
- mewpmewp2 2y ago
  > There's no "fixed budget" of energy that is ethically ok to use. Not even 0.00001 W? How is it ethical to live in the first place in such case? > The parents point was that these devices are woefully inefficent no matter which way you look at them. It's always a trade off, of productivity, enjoyment vs energy efficiency, isn't it? If I find a setup that allows me to be more productive and enjoy my work more, certainly I would need to balance it with how much potential waste there is in terms of efficiency. > The "best" thing to do would be neither, and is usually to just use the device you have That's quite a generic statement. If my device is a budget android phone, do you expect me to keep coding on it, not buying better tools?
  - seadan83 2y ago
    FWIW (just to clarify on this one area if I may) >> There's no "fixed budget" of energy that is ethically ok to use. > Not even 0.00001 W? How is it ethical to live in the first place in such case? The idea of no fixed budget is there is no binary threshold. Where above is bad and below is okay. Just a spectrum.
- r3trohack3r 2y ago
  I’d be interested in hearing you reconcile your statement by making an ethical case for the energy use of video games and the hardware that runs them. Is there a level of energy that is ethically okay to use for video games?
  - maccard 2y ago
    No more or less than any voluntary activity. What about baking for pleasure? My point isn't that all energy use is bad, it's that there's no line that says "use to hear as you wish but everything after this is wrong"
- ClumsyPilot 2y ago
  > the impact of buying a new one is more than the impact of actually running the thing unless you run it 24/7/365 This is wrong for basically everything we ever use - from a house, to an electric car. And especially for small items like electronics
- Tepix 2y ago
  Read up on the 2000 watts society
Aurornis 2y ago
The parent comment is wrong. The Samsun QN800A uses 139W typical, with a peak around 400W according to reviews https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/samsung/qn800a-8k-qled#test_79 https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/samsung/qn800a-8k-qled#tes... To put it in perspective, an electric car might need 350 Watt-hours per mile. A 10-mile drive would use 3.5 kWh. That's equivalent to about 24 hours of using that monitor at normal settings, or about 8 hours at maximum brightness. The comparison doesn't make sense, though, because if you drove to the office you'd still be using a monitor somewhere. A single 4K monitor might take around 30-40W. Using four of them to equal this 8K display would come in right around the 139W typical power consumption of the 8K 65" monitor.

maccard 2y ago

I don't think this is an honest question. There's no "fixed budget" of energy that is ethically ok to use. The parents point was that these devices are woefully inefficent no matter which way you look at them. The "best" thing to do would be neither, and is usually to just use the device you have - particularly for low power electronics as the impact of buying a new one is more than the impact of actually running the thing unless you run it 24/7/365

mewpmewp2 2y ago
> There's no "fixed budget" of energy that is ethically ok to use. Not even 0.00001 W? How is it ethical to live in the first place in such case? > The parents point was that these devices are woefully inefficent no matter which way you look at them. It's always a trade off, of productivity, enjoyment vs energy efficiency, isn't it? If I find a setup that allows me to be more productive and enjoy my work more, certainly I would need to balance it with how much potential waste there is in terms of efficiency. > The "best" thing to do would be neither, and is usually to just use the device you have That's quite a generic statement. If my device is a budget android phone, do you expect me to keep coding on it, not buying better tools?
- seadan83 2y ago
  FWIW (just to clarify on this one area if I may) >> There's no "fixed budget" of energy that is ethically ok to use. > Not even 0.00001 W? How is it ethical to live in the first place in such case? The idea of no fixed budget is there is no binary threshold. Where above is bad and below is okay. Just a spectrum.
r3trohack3r 2y ago
I’d be interested in hearing you reconcile your statement by making an ethical case for the energy use of video games and the hardware that runs them. Is there a level of energy that is ethically okay to use for video games?
- maccard 2y ago
  No more or less than any voluntary activity. What about baking for pleasure? My point isn't that all energy use is bad, it's that there's no line that says "use to hear as you wish but everything after this is wrong"
ClumsyPilot 2y ago
> the impact of buying a new one is more than the impact of actually running the thing unless you run it 24/7/365 This is wrong for basically everything we ever use - from a house, to an electric car. And especially for small items like electronics
Tepix 2y ago
Read up on the 2000 watts society

Aurornis 2y ago

The parent comment is wrong. The Samsun QN800A uses 139W typical, with a peak around 400W according to reviews https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/samsung/qn800a-8k-qled#test_79 https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/samsung/qn800a-8k-qled#tes... To put it in perspective, an electric car might need 350 Watt-hours per mile. A 10-mile drive would use 3.5 kWh. That's equivalent to about 24 hours of using that monitor at normal settings, or about 8 hours at maximum brightness. The comparison doesn't make sense, though, because if you drove to the office you'd still be using a monitor somewhere. A single 4K monitor might take around 30-40W. Using four of them to equal this 8K display would come in right around the 139W typical power consumption of the 8K 65" monitor.