Physics

I can understand, in the warmer states why this is a waste - it costs money to keep the offices cool. But in winter and in, say Alaska, it makes no sense.

Energy is neither created or destroyed. Those PCs will be generating heat, meaning the company heating systems will be doing less work. At night, in freezing conditions, companies normally lower, not shut off completely the heating so these PCs are contributing to keeping the place warm. If we use the PCs to do computing tasks, they will generate a little more heat but hey, it's useful to keep the place warm. I agree, if the heating is normally turned off, some of the heat will be lost as no building is 100% efficient.

The same follows for the "standby" argument in homes.

I agree this argument doesn't work where no heating or cooling is required. Am I missing something ?