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Tuesday, September 07, 2004

Energy saver <> money saver?

The typical printer or photocopier has an energy-saver mode. It takes a while to warm up and print or copy. I find it annoying, and I really wonder how the electricity savings compares to the wasted time of the people working in an office.

60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year. 7.2 million seconds. If a person earning $48,000 a year waits 15 seconds for the electronic device, that's 10 cents wasted. If this happens on average once a work day, that's $25 a year per person. Just how much energy savings are we talking about, anyway?

Too many people forget the concept of marginal costs. You want the cleanest air possible? Go to a clean room where microchips are made. But the costs for that air filtration must be ridiculous. The cost of acceptable quality is normally significantly less than the difference between the costs of acceptable quality and top quality. Cars. Electronics. Hotels. Furniture.

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