> but there will probably never be a way to make heating/cooling a house or manufacturing physical products a magnitude more efficient. You'd be surprised how

> but there will probably never be a way to make heating/cooling a house or manufacturing physical products a magnitude more efficient. You'd be surprised how much more efficient houses can be with pre-existing tech and very little change in lifestyle. Measures such as: a) smaller houses (median American house size has doubled in the past 60 years or something like that) b) better-designed houses (large south-facing windows, more thermal mass, better insulation) c) more effective heating systems (eg. radiant heat) d) moving away from central heating and cooling and instead only heating/cooling the rooms you're actually in can get you a long way (actual numbers in links at bottom). If you actually want to get into "personal sacrifice", putting on thermal underwear is a great way to reduce your heating bill. It's difficult to argue that wearing thermal underwear is a diminishing of one's standard of living. It's also possible for many people to buy fewer manufactured goods with very little effect on standard of living e.g. does every homeowner need a lawnmower, instead of sharing one with a neighbor? (again, we're into "personal sacrifice" territory). > Energy use per capita is effectively our standard of living. Only if we're running at 100% efficiency already, which I've demonstrated that we aren't. Right now the costs of running at sub-optimal energy efficiency aren't particularly high so we choose to be comfortable instead of efficient. Source (apologies they're all from the same place) http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/03/25/cut-your-power-bill/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/03/25/cut-your-power-bil... http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2014/02/16/the-radiant-heat-experiment/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2014/02/16/the-radiant-heat-e... http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/09/01/what-is-thermal-mass-and-how-can-it-make-you-money/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/09/01/what-is-thermal-ma... http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2014/05/01/beating-the-stock-market-with-diy-insulation/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2014/05/01/beating-the-stock-...