You mean, lie about environmental consequences? That's why I thought the D.A.R."E." was stupid (w.r.t. drugs). If you were fully honest about environmental consequences, carbon footprints, etc., you probably wouldn't buy a Prius. But that's a different discussion.

To guess some more numbers, the 2 group Astoria runs a 2800W heating element, which draws about 13 amperes at 220V. I believe that an AC unit for a normal-sized house is going to draw more like 50 amps at 220 V. If you insulate your boiler, your HVAC costs are going to dramatically dwarf your espresso machine's usage. If you insulate the boiler, the time that it's on ought to be about 10-15%. Then you put it on a timer so it's on during the day...

If you care for the environment, things that might make a bigger difference on your carbon footprint:

• Live closer to work; don't buy/rarely use a car.
• Use public transportation.
• Buy a smaller house. If you don't have 12 kids, you don't need a 5000 square foot house.
• Don't have a friggin' huge lawn, especially one in a dry climate.
• ...

Really, having a hobby like espresso is pretty minimal on carbon footprint. I guess we look bad compared to the kite-flyers of the world, but we're way behind, e.g., sports car enthusiasts and suburbanites with a penchant for large, horribly built houses with vast lawns.

I am not trying to say that it's not worth considering, but a 2-group machine is really only going to double the power usage of a machine that's not all that high on power usage. Be aware of it, sure, but your espresso machine choice should be far down on the list of things you do to help the environment (see and extend my list above--most of those things will reduce your usage--waste--dramatically more).

I have had a Vivaldi II for seven months or more and I have no complaints. It is very easy to use and you couldn't ask for a more consistent and reliable machine. I don't have the kitchen counter space for the commercial machine you are talking about. Even if I did, I doubt I would want to.