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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday January 31 2018, @07:57AM   Printer-friendly
from the what-about-the-PS4-usage dept.

The growing trends of teleworking and spending more time at home (watching TV/streaming, online shopping, gaming, etc.) have had an effect on the U.S. national energy demand:

Changes in Time Use and Their Effect on Energy Consumption in the United States (open, DOI: 10.1016/j.joule.2018.01.003) (DX)

Lifestyles are changing due to information technology and other socio-technological trends. We study the energy effects induced by lifestyle shifts via tradeoffs in time spent in performing activities. We use the American Time Use Survey to find changes in times performing different activities from 2003 to 2012. The results show that Americans are spending considerably more time at home (7.8 days more in 2012 compared with 2003). This increased home time is counterbalanced by decreased time spent traveling (1.2 days less in 2012 versus 2003) and in non-residential buildings (6.7 days less in 2012 versus 2003). Increased residential time is mainly due to increased work at home, video watching, and computer use. Decomposition analysis is then used to estimate effects on energy consumption, indicating that more time at home and less on travel and in non-residential buildings reduced national energy demand by 1,700 trillion BTU in 2012, 1.8% of the national total.


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @02:29PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @02:29PM (#630950)

    If you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the pollution. Anyone else remember that one? Top Google hits suggest that it was a play on a much more serious Eldridge Cleaver quote.

    Anyway, I've been lucky enough to work from home since leaving uni in 1977, with the odd month every now and then working at a customer site. Maybe not for everyone, but on balance it has worked out OK for me. Minimal commuting certainly cuts down on the car mileage (suburban USA), fuel usage and possibly stress/road-rage. I'm somewhere near half of the average (6000 miles/year, average is 12K or more) and most of those miles are not at peak (rush hour) times.

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday January 31 2018, @04:25PM (1 child)

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Wednesday January 31 2018, @04:25PM (#630996) Homepage Journal

    You're part of the precipitate

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
    • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday January 31 2018, @09:34PM

      by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday January 31 2018, @09:34PM (#631186)

      I'm totally evaporated, man.