On Saturday 15 September 2007 19:52:20 Chris Croughton wrote: > On Sat, Sep 15, 2007 at 11:33:05AM +0100, Jon Grant wrote: > > On 13/09/2007, Chris Croughton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > On Wed, Sep 12, 2007 at 09:46:52PM +0100, Jon Grant wrote: > > > > Hi, > > > > [...] > > > > > > > > > Which won't work because people can't distinguish the effect of > > > > > running a computer from all the other things which affect their > > > > > energy consumption! > > > > > > > > If the tax is on the purchase price consumer can "see the > > > > environmental cost" without the need to laboriously measure the > > > > actual energy usage of the PC after they've already purchased it. > > > > > > Who is going to assess the energy cost in advance, and how can they do > > > so with no idea of how the machine will be used? > > > > Like always (the company), the companies will have to put their AC > > power devices through tests and get rated for estimated lifetime > > usage. > > And of course they'll be truthful and won't distort or selectively use > statistics to make their products seem better. </sarcasm>
It's not that great, but a comparison could be made based on the maximum power use of the PC as it is sold, and the EU energy use diagram used (the one with A-G in power consumption and the coloured bars). That makes people aware, and there's already tax on electricity > (almost all Windows non-business users I know only run their machines > from when they get home untli when they go to bed, most *ix geeks are > proud of their year-plus uptimes). I think that's a geek/non-geek trait, rather than *ix/non-*ix. > (And in case you think I'm anti *ix, I'm one of the *ix geeks who runs > his machines 24/7/52...) But that's a waste! :-) $ last | grep reboot | head reboot system boot 2.6.21-2-686 Sat Sep 15 19:41 - 20:26 (00:44) reboot system boot 2.6.21-2-686 Sat Sep 15 18:04 - 19:00 (00:56) reboot system boot 2.6.21-2-686 Sat Sep 15 11:10 - 15:30 (04:19) reboot system boot 2.6.21-2-686 Fri Sep 14 22:55 - 02:28 (03:33) reboot system boot 2.6.21-2-686 Fri Sep 14 17:20 - 18:47 (01:26) reboot system boot 2.6.21-2-686 Thu Sep 13 19:23 - 23:10 (03:47) reboot system boot 2.6.21-2-686 Wed Sep 12 19:43 - 22:40 (02:57) reboot system boot 2.6.21-2-686 Tue Sep 11 19:44 - 22:34 (02:50) reboot system boot 2.6.21-2-686 Mon Sep 10 22:02 - 00:45 (02:43) > > Will be interesting to see what politicians come up with, probably > > some free-market system, where we pay for CO2 output rather than for > > KWH like at present? > > That would be logical, unlike your tax at point of sale. And therefore > is unlikely (it's more difficult to measure). If the energy is taxed when it's used it shouldn't be that hard. There'd be no tax on the energy produced by a wind turbine. Electricity from gas would have tax on it, from coal a higher tax. -- Matt :)
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