Brad Hudson wrote:subgenius wrote:between 1993 and 2005, air conditioners in the U.S. increased in efficiency by 28%, but by 2005, homes with air conditioning increased their consumption of energy for their air conditioners by 37%.
"Losing our cool" - stan cox
more efficient cars have led to more miles being driven...but more importantly the increase in engine efficiency have made increased consumption more affordable...so air conditioning, bigger bodies, etc. are more available....and increase consumption of energy. Efficiency in car engines allow for larger engines, not better use of the same Model A engine.
if one considers that the price of energy is related to its demand, then the efficiency for the use of energy will influence that price/demand.
look at vending machines...once they were rare and inefficient, so they were only cost effective for those with the income to support them...but now these machines are multiplied and more efficient...able to be installed in areas that could not afford them before...an increase in over all consumption (see air conditioner example above).
Some may try to argue that the USA has found a certain efficiency/consumption balance that contradicts Jevons paradox...but they ignore the global implication...it is reasonable and true that our excess i n consumption has been outsourced to other locations such as China....and when that is factored in, our efficiency has certainly increased consumption.
You're just doing the whole post hoc fallacy over and over again. You simply assume that whatever changes there are in consumption are due entirely to improvements in efficiency. The book you cite discussion many different causes for increase of air conditioner use. The causation issues are complex. To claim that efficiency is the sole cause is either naïve or disingenuous.
Of course the price effect of efficiency will will cause some increase in consumption. What you keep leaving out is that the efficiency itself causes a decrease in consumption. What you haven't shown, and can't show, is that the increase will be larger than the decrease. Seriously, pick up a book on basic microeconomics and read it.
the causes of "efficiency" are complex indeed....and are not mutually exclusive from the OP premise. Efficiency may not be the sole cause, but it may also not be excluded from the cause(s). It may be just a symptom of many factors being involved...nevertheless.....it is associated with the premise quite effectively...and i have noted various examples and reasoning in support of that premise.
What has yet to be seen is actual data or even a reasonable example where the contrary is true...or even seemingly true.
So, while i never claimed efficiency as a "sole" cause....the concept of efficiency, in broad terms, can most certainly be argued as being the sole cause...or at least a necessary cause.