Quote:
Originally Posted by Cowboy89
I wonder how much fossil-fuel energy is required to power your laptop for a day's work vs. the energy it takes to print a hundred pages a day. I don't even think there's a realistic environmental arguement for this let alone feel high and mighty enough to condemn people as being incompetent in their position for not having an internet connection at home. Also talk to your optomitrist about how damaging reading from a computer screen is versus reading from paper.
|
Of course there are too many variables to make an accurate projection, but here's a scenario: Let's assume a comparision where (A) 15 individuals are using their laptops eight hours a day; vs. a scenario where (B) copies of a 100 page document are made for 15 individuals who then work offline for the entire day.
A: Laptops run at 30 Watts on average, so let's say 30 Watts * 15 individuals * 8 hrs each, / 1000 = 3.6 Kilowatt hours.
B: At 30 ppm, it'll take 50 minutes to make the necessary 1500 pages of copies. A typical office printer runs at 1400 Watts when printing, so about 1.1 kWh. However, the big cost is the paper: which takes about 17 Wh per page to manufacture. Let's assume duplex printing, so about 750 pages at 17 Wh equals 12.75 kWh.
So the rough total cost of the paper office is almost 14 kWh, vs. 3.6 kWh for the laptop-based office.
