Jevon’s Paradox: LED lights
I recently purchased a Phillips Hue light bulb, with both the intent to save energy, and also to make my room different colors. Upon learning about Jevon’s Paradox and the Rebound Effect, I realized I may be part of a larger problem. Before going into larger national and global trends, lets take my own light bulb as an example. I got the bulb after reading that LED bulbs use around 90% less energy, and last longer than the incandescent bulbs[1] I am used to. With this, I figured I could keep the light on for much longer periods of time, even if not illuminate anything specific. With that, I was falling in the trap that is Jevon’s Paradox: by keeping that light on for a more prolonged period of time, I was offsetting the energy I was trying to save. Has national and even global energy consumption been similarly affected by the introduction of LED bulbs?
There are numerous factors to consider when analyzing the effect of LED light bulbs on global energy consumption. For example, there are many other appliances that use massive amounts of electricity that will have a large effect on a nation’s electricity consumption. According to the EIA, lighting used to make up the largest share of total annual electricity use by the commercial sector, but with the invention of LED bulbs, this proportion has decreased. One may conclude that this means LED bulbs are saving electricity; however, it is important to realize that just because there were large technological improvements in lighting efficiency, other electrical energy services, such as refrigeration, may have not seen the same advancements. Furthermore, climate change has led to increased demand for space cooling[2]. Also, when other appliances are utilized, they themselves often produce heat, further raising the demand for space cooling, and thus explaining its overtaking lighting in the U.S. electricity consumption mix. From 1966 to 2022, the average annual primary energy consumption for the whole world has increased by around 2.47%[3]. This means that even with many technological improvements, as in the case of LED lights, we are still increasing our energy consumption. People may believe they are saving energy with their LED lights, so they compensate by increasing their use of other appliances, which would explain why lighting fell from the number one sector of electricity use.
To highlight more specific examples of larger scale, unnecessary LED usage, let us look at advertisements in public. Billboards have increasingly switched from paper/vinyl to LED, leading to a relative increase in electricity use. Another prominent example may be seen in restaurants, or other eateries, whose once printed menus have turned digital. These technologies achieve the exact same goals paper did, leaving us to wonder at the point of the transition.
LEDs are also being put into large architecture for only novel purposes. Take the large sphere in Las Vegas as an example. The building uses 1.2 million LED screens and costed a total of over 2 billion dollars to create[4]. Because there is an idea that LEDs use such little energy, consumers are incentivized to use them far more than they would need to otherwise, and the Las Vegas sphere may be one of the worst examples of this.
So was this preventable? In my personal opinion, yes; however it would take a lot of accountability and responsibility from consumers. I think one of the features LED lights have that are a large contributor to their overuse is how they can be almost any color. Because of this, the lights are no longer used to illuminate a specific room or surface, but now serve a whole new purpose. These lights can be an advertisement, a menu, or just a decoration in a room. All of these new uses tend to require the lights to be used for a much longer period of time. To fix this overuse, I would recommend a system of individual transferable quotas for business and households alike. It could have a certain maximum of amount of energy lights could be used to produce. By making it all lights in general, there wouldn’t be a reason to go back to the less efficient incandescent bulbs, but also will restrict usage to prevent abusing LEDs beneficial features. By making them transferable, it will support economic activity, as businesses, and even households can buy and sell parts of their quota to other. Say one household has a family of 5 in it, and they are very pressed by the quota. They would be able to purchase some of a quota from, say a person living alone in a house. Businesses would have the same rules. If they are in an industry that requires a lot of light usage, they can purchase some extra energy usage from a company in a different industry. One important aspect of these quotas is that they will be proportional to how much energy would typically be demanded by a specific party. For example, the family of 5s quota will be higher than he one person.
Sources:
Alter, L. (2018, October 11). On Stanley Jevons and led lights. Treehugger: Sustainability for All. https://www.treehugger.com/stanley-jevons-and-led-lights-4851159
Cable News Network. (2023, July 7). It seats 18,000 and cost over $2B to build. see Vegas’ new venue lighting up the skyline. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/videos/travel/2023/07/06/msg-sphere-las-vegas-led-travel-contd-jo-orig.cnn
Lighting choices to save you money. Energy.gov. (n.d.). https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/lighting-choices-save-you-money#:~:text=LEDs%20use%20up%20to%2090,longer%20than%20traditional%20incandescent%20bulbs.
Ritchie, H., Rosado, P., & Roser, M. (2024, January 4). Energy production and consumption. Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/energy-production-consumption
U.S. Energy Information Administration — EIA — independent statistics and analysis. Use of electricity — U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). (2023, December 18). https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/use-of-electricity.php#:~:text=Total%20U.S.%20electricity%20consumption%20in,year%20decreases%20occurred%20after%202007.
[1] Lighting choices to save you money. Energy.gov. (n.d.).
[2] U.S. Energy Information Administration — EIA — independent statistics and analysis. Use of electricity — U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). (2023, December 18).
[3] U.S. Energy Information Administration — EIA — independent statistics and analysis. Use of electricity — U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). (2023, December 18).
[4] Cable News Network. (2023, July 7). It seats 18,000 and cost over $2B to build. see Vegas’ new venue lighting up the skyline. CNN.
