[geocrasher]

I hear this argument all the time. But unless you're doing something that's solar, battery, RTG or otherwise non-grid powered, then what does it really matter? At what scale is a person running so many old laptops that they need to switch to RPi's to save power?

And if that person can afford the Pi's, they can afford the power, so there's no point quoting power costs.

[justeleblanc]

I can also afford to let my faucet run 24/7. Should I do it to avoid needing to turn the knob when I need to wash my hands?

[comprev]

Here in Ireland water (to domestic properties) is free - as I embarrassingly discovered when phoning them up to setup an account :)

In theory, I could leave all the taps on 24/7, however that’s A) abuse of a free service, and B) a complete waste of resources.

Even cleaning the car I’m very strict about turning the hose off when I’m using the sponges.

[justeleblanc]

Good, you understood my point. Using an overpowered device is a complete waste of resources.

[geocrasher]

I didn't say that having resources meant they should be abused. I said that if somebody can afford $150 for a RPi can afford $2.50/mo for power instead of $0.50/mo for power, and that as a result, factoring in lower power use is a poor reason for buying something you don't otherwise need, especially when that power is easily available.

If that power were coming from locally finite source such as solar or wind, or battery, it's a different story.

[justeleblanc]

You know there's this little event going on called climate disruption, and that a leading cause is energy overconsumption, right?