In response to:
He is also comparing apples to oranges. The savings of 18 million is dependent on how many people participate in energy star. If, say, only one person bought an ES appliance, then the cost savings would be very small, but what would that have to do with the cost of converting a house?
A more realistic way of doing this is to compare the lifetime savings for efficiency. Ransom complains about light bulbs so let’s look at the cost of a LED bulb to his incandescent. If you look at the entire liftime cost, manufacturing and use, a LED bulb will use 280 kWh over its 25,000 hour lifetime. It would require 1,500 kilowatt-hours for the standard incandescent bulbs.
Of course, that doesn’t fit into Ransom’s story so let’s ignore the numbers.
I'm proposing a bold conservation program to involve every state, county, and city and every average American in our energy battle. This effort will permit you to build conservation into your homes and your lives at a cost you can afford. I ask Congress to give me authority for mandatory conservation and for standby gasoline rationing. To further conserve energy, I'm proposing tonight an extra ten billion dollars over the next decade to strengthen our public transportation systems. And I'm asking you for your good and for your nation's security to take no unnecessary trips, to use carpools or public...
What did the actual COST (in dollars) of LED vs incandescent over that 25,000 come to?
Your "realistic" only shows that the LED used fewer kWh - not that it was less expensive vs incandescent. If you want to convert someone - show them that they actually stand to gain: especially in their wallet.
You can do the math.