Rebound effect

The rebound effect is an increase in resource use that partly or fully offsets savings from improved efficiency. It can arise when efficiency lowers the cost of using a resource or changes behavior and production.

Jevons paradox: A case in which improved efficiency leads to increased total consumption of a resource. It is the strongest form of rebound: increased use exceeds the efficiency savings.
Energy efficiency: The ratio of useful energy services obtained to energy consumed. Efficiency improvements create the potential savings that rebound can partly or wholly offset.
William Stanley Jevons: A nineteenth-century English economist and logician who studied coal use and economic growth. His analysis of coal efficiency gave the phenomenon its classic early formulation.
Energy conservation: Actions that reduce energy use by limiting demand or changing behavior and practices. Conservation reduces use directly, while rebound describes use rising after efficiency improvements.
Direct rebound effect: Increased use of an efficient service because its effective cost falls. It occurs when efficiency makes the very service improved cheaper to use.
Fuel economy: The distance a vehicle travels per unit of fuel consumed. More efficient driving can reduce per-mile costs and encourage additional travel.
The Coal Question: William Stanley Jevons’s 1865 book on Britain’s coal supply and its economic significance. It argued that more efficient coal use could expand demand rather than conserve coal.
Induced demand: An increase in demand caused by changes that make a good or service more available or attractive. It can resemble rebound, but does not require an efficiency improvement as its trigger.
Indirect rebound effect: Additional resource use caused when efficiency savings are spent on other goods or services. It traces how savings from one efficient service can raise consumption elsewhere.
Home heating: The provision of indoor warmth using systems such as furnaces, boilers, or heat pumps. Insulation or heating upgrades can prompt occupants to heat more rooms or raise temperatures.

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