Kristina Johnson explains why energy efficiency and conservation aren't the same thing. When appliances get more efficient, people often use them more, which can actually increase total energy consumption. She uses lighting and refrigeration as examples of how efficiency gains don't always mean less energy overall.
Chapters
Energy conservation. I think this is a really important distinction that I certainly didn't appreciate before I became undersecretary. And there's a difference between energy efficiency around appliances and lighting, for example, and energy conservation. And what I mean by that is with lights, I actually, for holiday gifts, I give my friends CFLs now I'll give them LEDs. You may not want to be on my holiday list, but that's what you get. And what I noticed is I was visiting a friend who I'd given all the CFLs and they were leaving them on at night. I'm like, why are you doing that? Oh, well, they're so much more efficient now I can just leave them on all the time, which means they're using more energy in some sense, depending. And so what we found is that there are some really interesting studies about lighting over 700 years, going from the efficiency change from a candle to an led. And the efficiency factor is, you know, I'm trying to remember, it's thousands and thousands. But the energy use actually taking into account the population change, is many more thousands. And I forget what the difference is. And so there are certain things where the money you save is being reinvested into buying more. How many have been in a home that has two refrigerators, one in the house, one in the garage? Well, you know, refrigeration is one of the classic examples of how standards have really moved the needle in terms of size, cost and efficiency. But then people buy two. Now where I think energy efficiency and the investments in really pay off are in buildings, both commercial sector as well as residential, because for about $5,000 investment, you can save about 30% of the energy. Well, you're not going to save enough to buy another house. So those savings with that money you may reinvest in the economy, which is fine, or you may save it. And we spend about 10% of our GDP on energy. So you do get an impact there. So I think it's appreciating and understanding how energy efficiency and energy conservation trade off.
