Do you believe in Jevons Paradox?

[burritos]

Jevons paradox - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In economics, the Jevons Paradox is an observation made by William Stanley Jevons, that as technological improvements increase the efficiency with which a resource is used, total consumption of that resource tends to increase, rather than decrease.

If you do. Does buying a prius really make a damn difference(environmentally that is) or is it just making us feel better?

[tripp]

Jevon's paradox applied to coal and shipping, if I recall. I think it can apply, but is not a sweeping economic law. How much more do you drive now just because you bought a prius? Probably you driving distances haven't changed much. What about CFLs? You you gonna buy 4x more lamps for your house now? I doubt it. Ditto LCD monitors.

[stacked]

For the most part yes. Take for instance refrigerators, they have gotten about twice as effecient in the last 50 years. But................Now they are twice as big, and lots of people have 2 of them, plus a freezer. My guess is a person who switches from a 20 mpg car to a Prius, likely drives alot more in the Prius, maybe n ot twice as much, but more.

[KayakerNC]

Originally Posted by tripp

What about CFLs? You you gonna buy 4x more lamps for your house now?

Not more lamps, but maybe the existing lamps do not get turned off as soon as you leave the room.
Computers are a good example, as the newer OS (Vista) hogs more memory, even as computer memory improves with newer computers.

[Scruge]

Originally Posted by tripp

What about CFLs? You you gonna buy 4x more lamps for your house now?

Side note... I could never understand why in certain uses the CFL life was less than a few hundred hours. After doing some research I found CFL aren't well suited for frequent and short interval (<15min) applicataions. Like my wife's bathroom habits.
So I've told her to just leave them on. bulb life has increased but I wonder what its costing my in energy. There are 5 of those 35w CFL PAR reflector bulbs on the one switch.. I think I pay $12 for a 3pk at costco / sam's. I replace one about every 60 days.
I may return to the old 90w bulbs as I think they are cheaper in the long run.

[qbee42]

Originally Posted by Scruge

Side note... I could never understand why in certain uses the CFL life was less than a few hundred hours. After doing some research I found CFL aren't well suited for frequent and short interval (<15min) applicataions. Like my wife's bathroom habits.
So I've told her to just leave them on. bulb life has increased but I wonder what its costing my in energy. There are 5 of those 35w CFL PAR reflector bulbs on the one switch.. I think I pay $12 for a 3pk at costco / sam's. I replace one about every 60 days.
I may return to the old 90w bulbs as I think they are cheaper in the long run.

You need LEDs for that use.

Tom

[Zythryn]

In some cases a Prius owner may drive more because they get better mpg.
Of the three Prii owners I know, this is not the case. However that isn't necessarily true for everyone.

[burritos]

Originally Posted by tripp

Jevon's paradox applied to coal and shipping, if I recall. I think it can apply, but is not a sweeping economic law. How much more do you drive now just because you bought a prius? Probably you driving distances haven't changed much. What about CFLs? You you gonna buy 4x more lamps for your house now? I doubt it. Ditto LCD monitors.

Well, we don't think twice about taking little day trips where as if cost were an issue, we might have thought otherwise.

[tripp]

Originally Posted by stacked

For the most part yes. Take for instance refrigerators, they have gotten about twice as effecient in the last 50 years. But................Now they are twice as big, and lots of people have 2 of them, plus a freezer. My guess is a person who switches from a 20 mpg car to a Prius, likely drives alot more in the Prius, maybe n ot twice as much, but more.

Most of the extra ones that I've seen are ancient inefficient pigs. That has more to do with the cheapness of electricity than the efficiency of the refrigerators.

[tripp]

Originally Posted by Scruge

Side note... I could never understand why in certain uses the CFL life was less than a few hundred hours. After doing some research I found CFL aren't well suited for frequent and short interval (<15min) applicataions. Like my wife's bathroom habits.
So I've told her to just leave them on. bulb life has increased but I wonder what its costing my in energy. There are 5 of those 35w CFL PAR reflector bulbs on the one switch.. I think I pay $12 for a 3pk at costco / sam's. I replace one about every 60 days.
I may return to the old 90w bulbs as I think they are cheaper in the long run.

Or perhaps a lower watt incandescent. Would 60W bulbs suffice? Maybe 75W?