148 Green Computing
or figure out averages that you use on an ongoing basis. (The important things
to look out for in using averages are clarity and consistency.)
You can look at the carbon footprint of an activity narrowly or broadly.
Running a laptop will use a certain amount of energy per hour—30 watts is a
typical figure, about half the energy use of a 60W light bulb (which is on the
low end of a bulb that people use for, say, residential lighting). So, narrowly
speaking, the carbon footprint of the laptop is whatever’s needed to generate 30
watts per hour of electricity.
More holistically, though, the user in an office has to get there, and his or
her presence in the office will cause a certain amount of energy usage. For tele-
commuting ...