High-powered computers are a niche issue, which means on a society level there's little benefit to restricting them.
Lightbulbs on the other hand affect all of society, so they've got a much larger impact to the overall CO2 budget.
Additionally, the average person uses a laptop or mobile devices, all of which use less power than even a single typical incandescent bulb (and people usually have many lightbulbs).
Replacing incandescent bulbs with LEDs saves a lot of CO2 at basically zero cost, while getting rid of computers saves less CO2 for a much larger economic impact.
And even the effect described by this article has to be looked at in context, considering most of the light people experience in a day — and have experienced for the since homo sapiens existed — is natural sunlight, even in northern Europe during the winter (that's why EU law mandates windows with sunlight in every office, apartment, bedroom, etc.)
There are efficiency standards and laws for large appliances.
This isn’t some kind of controversial subject. Ensuring home appliances don’t overconsume energy is beneficial for everyone in society.
You don’t want to have brownouts, blackouts, or run out of heating gas/oil in the winter.
You bring up the idea of regulating computer equipment power efficiency as if it’s crazy talk but it’s a real thing in concept. Governments do offer guidance and sometimes regulate computer efficiency. They have efficiency standards (e.g. Energy Star) as well as relying on industry standards (e.g. “80 Plus”).
Take a look at your computer monitor or TV box and it probably has an energy star logo somewhere if you live in the US.
The US federal government and other state and local agencies will not buy computer products that aren’t energy star compliant, and encourages businesses and individual to follow similar standards. Other countries might regulate further than these (dis)incentives.
And if you bring up data centers, those are considered productive industry that has its own regulations different than home regulations. Plenty of things legal in industrial series aren’t legal in your house.
High-powered computers are a niche issue, which means on a society level there's little benefit to restricting them.
Lightbulbs on the other hand affect all of society, so they've got a much larger impact to the overall CO2 budget.
Additionally, the average person uses a laptop or mobile devices, all of which use less power than even a single typical incandescent bulb (and people usually have many lightbulbs).
Replacing incandescent bulbs with LEDs saves a lot of CO2 at basically zero cost, while getting rid of computers saves less CO2 for a much larger economic impact.
And even the effect described by this article has to be looked at in context, considering most of the light people experience in a day — and have experienced for the since homo sapiens existed — is natural sunlight, even in northern Europe during the winter (that's why EU law mandates windows with sunlight in every office, apartment, bedroom, etc.)
Sad to say, but concerning the PC, seems we're moving in that direction pretty fast.
I hope they don’t come for my 386 with 14” CRT
There are efficiency standards and laws for large appliances.
This isn’t some kind of controversial subject. Ensuring home appliances don’t overconsume energy is beneficial for everyone in society.
You don’t want to have brownouts, blackouts, or run out of heating gas/oil in the winter.
You bring up the idea of regulating computer equipment power efficiency as if it’s crazy talk but it’s a real thing in concept. Governments do offer guidance and sometimes regulate computer efficiency. They have efficiency standards (e.g. Energy Star) as well as relying on industry standards (e.g. “80 Plus”).
Take a look at your computer monitor or TV box and it probably has an energy star logo somewhere if you live in the US.
The US federal government and other state and local agencies will not buy computer products that aren’t energy star compliant, and encourages businesses and individual to follow similar standards. Other countries might regulate further than these (dis)incentives.
https://www.energy.gov/femp/purchasing-energy-efficient-comp...
And if you bring up data centers, those are considered productive industry that has its own regulations different than home regulations. Plenty of things legal in industrial series aren’t legal in your house.