The conversion to LED based lighting really is the only thing that crushed Jevon’s paradox. Other energy efficiency standards were incremental improvements.
LED and its mass adoption was an 80% drop in energy consumption if you kept using the same amount of lighting.
It’s really, really hard to spend 4-5 more on lighting. Instead of the usual 4 hours of lights, you’d have to keep them on for 16-20 just to break even. So even if you kept lights a little longer, it was still a small blip in total energy.
So really, the LED really is the game changer that it was touted to be.
Another thing that breaks Jevon’s paradox are technologies that automate conservation. My company moved to a newly-constructed office building, and all the lights in conference rooms turn off automatically if there is no-one there. A neighbor is installing the same type of tech in his house (he's admittedly an early adopter/gadget lover, so he isn't as concerned with the payback period). I can only see this trend accelerating as the tech cost falls.
>A neighbor is installing the same type of tech in his house (he's admittedly an early adopter/gadget lover, so he isn't as concerned with the payback period).
My parents used to apply a same kind of solution for our own house. It's called 'turn of the lights when you leave a room'.
LED and its mass adoption was an 80% drop in energy consumption if you kept using the same amount of lighting.
It’s really, really hard to spend 4-5 more on lighting. Instead of the usual 4 hours of lights, you’d have to keep them on for 16-20 just to break even. So even if you kept lights a little longer, it was still a small blip in total energy.
So really, the LED really is the game changer that it was touted to be.