Daylight saving time doesn't save - but it might cost

[RC]

Daylight saving time doesn't save - but it might cost

The days might be bright a bit earlier. But new research shows that "falling back" each fall might only help you save energy by giving you that extra hour of sleep.

By BILL McAULIFFE, Star Tribune

Daylight saving time ends tonight. Do you know where your savings are?

Two years into yet another experiment with our clocks, the original reason for it -- saving energy -- hasn't been borne out. In fact, a pair of economists assert that people may be using more energy as a result.

"One thing I'm certainly skeptical about is the beneficial effect the policy is supposed to have," said Matthew Kotchen, a professor of economics at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Kotchen found that the darker fall mornings at the end of the daylight savings season led to a 2 to 4 percent increase in residential electricity consumption in the southern Indiana region he and his partner studied. That cost individual households $3.29 per year while increasing greenhouse gas pollution from generating the electricity.

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http://www.startribune.com/local/33674494.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUF


The fact that the bu$h administration has pushed this latest experiment in fiddling with the clocks should give you pause as to the stated excuse vs the real outcome.

[Ms. Toad]

1. All it does is shift where the energy is used

Work at the end of the day for lights and climate control, or home at the beginning of the day for lights and climate control. Whether it takes more energy reflects which entities are better at operating energy efficiently.

[Warpy]

2. That's true in the winter

but it eliminates much of the energy use at night in the summer by prolonging the evening daylight, at least by the clock. Summer mornings are bright and sunny with daylight saving time because days are longer.

I'd really prefer DST year round. I remember how horribly depressing it was up north to get up and go to work in the dark and go home in the dark. Unless I went out for lunch, I just never saw the sun.

[47of74]

4. I've had days like those too

Go into work when it was dark, and go home when it was dark. Yuck.

[47of74]

3. One thing I did like

One thing I did like back in 2006 when daylight savings time began was that I was working overnight on the date of the time change. So instead of having to work 12 hours that night I only had to work 11 hours. By the time DST ended that year I was working 2nd shift and had weekends off so I got my extra hour of sleep then. I kind of had pay for that in 2007 though when I had to work the morning after DST began.

[wishlist]

5. Lobbyists that pushed for it included gas grill/sports goods manufacturers

There is no energy savings because it is so dark now in morning during those extra weeks of daylight savings time that everyone has to use more lighting in the morning hours. The primary lobbyists who convinced Congress to go along with the extended daylight savings time were businesses hoping to promote more outdoor activities such as grilling out during the extended daylight in the evenings.

I don't like daylight savings anyway, but especially disliked it recently because I have had to get my elderly parents up and out to medical appointments before daylight when it is barely light at 8 am, especially on overcast or foggy days.

[KellyW]

8. The extension of DST is good for politicians

More doorbelling daylight in the afternoon in October. Before this change, getting people out to doorbell on weeksdays got real hard after we went off DST. Doorbelling in the dark is less productive and more dangerous. It is harder to find houses in the dark a folks are less likely to open their doors. IIRC is use to end about 2 weeks earlier.

[HereSince1628]

6. I read that the real reason for DST was another hour of daylight to shop. n/t

[Oeditpus Rex]

7. I dunno why we don't do it the other way around

If we "sprang back" and "fell forward," it'd get dark around 8 p.m. in summer and 6:30 p.m. in winter — in these parts, that is — instead of 9 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., respectively.



:shrug: