As Arthur points out, at least in older Seattle neighborhoods, energy use might go up with telecommuting. We had a 1910 2-story plus basement house in Capital Hill while we were in Seattle, and it was leaky and poorly insulated. When we were both at work, we’d just turn the thermostat off since it wasn’t going to freeze up and then turn it at 6 pm when we got home.
If working from home, one might heat the whole house up to keep a home office warm (and, let’s face it, we wander to the kitchen, do some laundry, etc, during our remote work days). Or use an electric resistance heater to just warm up the home office which on most grids, isn’t very carbon-efficient (it is in the PNW due to all the hydro power they have).
OTOH, where I am now, in Alaska, in a well-insulated and well-sealed house? I run no heat when the outside temps are above 40F and on cold winter days, turning down the thermostat doesn’t make much difference. Turn down the thermostat from 70F to 60F while I’m away? That reduces the inside-outside temp differential from 80F to 70F which isn’t much of a percentage reduction. Compared to coastal California winters in which the inside/outside differential of 70F-52F is reduced a lot if you turn the thermostat down much.
Looking at the electricity sales of our utility, year-to-year comparisons show residential use was up this Spring and Summer, but not by as much as small and large commercial usage was down. People were working, schooling and cooking at home more, and continue to do so, but the reduction in stores, offices and restaurants was a larger reduction, across the 60,000 people we serve. And most of our large supermarkets and big box stores have gone to reduced hours.
But getting traffic off the road? That’s huge. Both the trip you didn’t take and the remaining drivers getting better fuel efficiency with less stop&go driving. Interestingly, this Spring, miles driven went down, but fatalities went up because accidents occurred at higher speeds on the emptier roads.
