Daylight Wasting Time?
Published on Mar 8, 2008 at 4:19 pm.
19 Comments.
Filed under time.
Tomorrow morning, at 2am, clocks throughout most of the United States will be set one hour forward. This ensures that everyone gets up an hour earlier. That means that they are supposed to go to bed an hour earlier, too. We call this annual exercise Daylight Saving Time. I wrote about Daylight Saving Time a couple years ago. In theory, it saves us all energy. The idea started with Benjamin Franklin, but didn’t really get going in the United States until energy shortages associated with World War I. The basic idea was that in the summer, the days are longer, with the sun rising earlier and setting later. Unfortunately, the sun often rises before people rise. So, if you were to get up earlier, stay away for the same length of time, and then go to bed after the same number of hours, you’d be going to bed earlier and burning oil lamps and electric lights less after sunset. That saves energy. Eventually, Daylight Saving Time was extended to start earlier in the year and to last later in the year. That seemed to save even more energy. Furthermore, it made for even criminals going to bed earlier, so there was less crime, given that sunlight was shining for more hours that people were up. Traffic accidents seemed to drop since people could see the streets better. All-in-all, Daylight Saving Time seemed to work like it was supposed to.
But, last year we changed the start and stop times for Daylight Saving Time, and I wrote about that, too. This was part of an energy bill passed by Congress in 2005. Using decades old research data, Congress decided that it would save money to extend Daylight Saving Time. However, as I have said in the past, that is likely not true. For one thing, the primary source of electric power usage today is not electric lights. Rather, we have air conditioners, televisions, computers, and all manner of electrical devices and appliances. Many of these use the same electricity day or night. Furthermore, today far more places have dusk-to-dawn security lights, which were much less common decades ago. So, places are illuminated with artificial lights at night, and it does not matter what time it is. Those lights mean no savings if you change the time, and they also mean that the change in time has less impact on crime. As for traffic accidents, decades ago there were far fewer street lights. Today, urban streets are far more lit up, alleviating the conditions that led to traffic accidents. There is even some anecdotal evidence that starting Daylight Saving Time too early or continuing it too late can lead to more traffic accidents as drivers are driving directly into the rising sun in the morning rush hour in some parts of the country.
Now, according to a Wall Street Journal report, the situation may be worse than I had anticipated. Daylight Saving Time might actually waste more energy than it saves! Dr. Matthew Kotch at the University of California Santa Barbara now has research that shows quite clearly that the standard assumptions about Daylight Saving Time don’t hold. Research showing electric savings from the time switch is decades old, with one exception: Indiana. For decades, most of Indiana has not done a time switch. However, that changed in 2006 when legislation was passed putting the entire state onto Daylight Saving Time. This was supposed to save electricity and to promote commerce since people outside of Indiana would not have to think so much about what time it was in Indiana. But, how much electricity was being saved? Kotch and his graduate student, Laura Grant, decided to find out. They had a control sample of 15 counties that had already been observing Daylight Saving Time. So, they looked at electric consumption (as measured by the power company’s customers’ electric meters). By comparing the electric consumption before and after the switch to Daylight Saving Time and using the 15 counties that had already been doing that as a control sample, they were able to see what change the time switch had on electric usage. What they found, though, was that electricity consumption actually increased after the state began statewide observance of Daylight Saving Time!
How can that be? Daylight Saving Time is supposed to save energy! Well, the problem is that the research is based on electric consumption habits from decades ago. Things have changed since then. Now, with electricity and fossil fuels at already very high prices, we are going to be using even more because of an ill conceived idea. But, you can see why the time change would not have much effect, but why would it actually increase the electricity consumption? One suggestion is that perhaps it is all those air conditioners. With electricity very expensive, many people set their thermostats up a few degrees when they are not home, and they turn the temperature down cooler when they get home. Under Standard Time, they were getting home an hour or so after the hottest part of the day. Under Daylight Saving Time, they are getting home at the hottest time of day. That means much more electricity consumption. Also, this means that they are driving home at the hottest time of day, meaning that their car air conditioners have to work harder (most cars did not have air conditioners the last time that research was done). That cuts into gasoline mileage, and it increases pollution.
Hmm. So, maybe this isn’t such a good idea after all. Sure, there are some definite benefits to getting up earlier and getting through work earlier: there are more hours of daylight to do things outdoors after work. But, lets not pretend that we are saving energy when we are not.
-Astroprof
Clock picture from clipartheaven.com.
Thanny on March 8, 2008 at 10:34 pm: 1
This doesn’t really pertain to the topic, but your contact link has been disabled. I found this entry via badastronomy.com, and had to comment on your page format. Here’s what my browser window looks like:
http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/255/astroprofspagejh6.png
Bear in mind that my screen resolution is 2560×1600, so while the fonts may look large on your screen, they are normal-sized on mine.
Basically, what I’m saying is that you need to change something so that your entry text isn’t occupying a statically-sized column down the middle of the page. People have different screen sizes, and different browser window sizes. If the part of your page design that specifies the size of the main content contains an absolute pixel count, you are doing something wrong.
Astroprof on March 8, 2008 at 11:07 pm: 2
Hmm. I am just using the default Wordpress setup. However, I can the text to look like your image by changing the font size in the browser to very large. If you can suggest how to set it so that it sizes the fonts for people with different settings see it correctly, then I’d be happy to try to fix that.
keydetpiper on March 9, 2008 at 12:15 am: 3
Very interesting! I’m curious about other habits and laws that no longer serve their intended purpose.
spelling elling on March 9, 2008 at 6:08 am: 4
“stay away” -> “stay awake” ?
Kevin on March 9, 2008 at 6:55 am: 5
It was little known, and only in a few papers that I am aware of, but I remember that if people didn’t like the “new DST rules” congress laid down, they could complain to the Department of Energy. And, if enough people complained, the Energy Secretary had the power to override Congress, and put us back on the “First Sunday in April/Last Sunday in October” schedule for DST.
Last year I urged everyone I know to contact the DoE about it, but whether they did or not, I have no idea. And since we didn’t switch back this year, enough people didn’t care, I suppose.
But I’m sure if there was a big groundswell, they would adjust DST again.
Spring Ahead « SpaceWatch Michigan on March 9, 2008 at 7:24 am: 6
[…] Phil Plait, in his badastronomy.com post Don’t Forget to Reset Your Clocks is short, and grumbles a bit about the whole DST thing, while the Astroprof’s article Daylight Wasting Time gives you all the information you will ever need about why we change, and why we shouldn’t change, and why the government is just plain wrong about this whole issue. And this science writer has some personal thoughts as well on this subject. […]
Daylight Savings Time? on March 9, 2008 at 7:50 am: 7
[…] Astroprof writes about Daylight Wasting Time? and a research study that was done in Indiana. […]
Troy on March 9, 2008 at 9:05 am: 8
Another issue that you didn’t mention is that people also respond to getting home during daylight when they return home from work by hitting the stores malls. This of course is good for the economy (economic benefit was the reason they changed it back in 1987) to some degree but it is counterproductive in the energy consumption which was the reason for the change this time.
It is a bit odd changing when there is still snow around but anyway I’m basically for it, since I like to do things outside when I get home.
Savings Schmavings « Thoughts from My Pocket on March 9, 2008 at 9:40 am: 9
[…] Astroprof - DAYLIGHT WASTING TIME? […]
Erica B. on March 9, 2008 at 9:33 pm: 10
I moved to Indiana from Massachusetts in 2003. We really liked not having to worry about the DST change, which always is a source of frustration when changing clocks, and worry about getting to work on time the next day. When they changed the law, all the annoyances we had been freed from were back — my daughter even was an hour late to a birthday party because of our confusion about what time it was.
The fact that this was a completely wasteful, useless introduction to the state makes things just that much worse! BAD DST!
geomaniac on March 10, 2008 at 11:51 am: 11
I HATE getting up and going to work in the dark. I also doubt that it is very safe for the kids who have to walk to their school bus stops in the dark either. Thanks Congress. I believe that they actually think that by just adjusting the clocks, we actually get more hours of daylight. No, all it really does is shift the light from the morning to the evening, so then mornings become more dangerous.
We need to go back to the “old” schedule of DST from April to October. Better yet let’s just repeal this whole lame brained experiment and go back to “standard” time where we belong.
arensb on March 10, 2008 at 5:17 pm: 12
Thanny and Astroprof:
As you point out, the default Wordpress theme uses a fixed size, which breaks things for people who resize their browsers. And since most themes that I saw were derived from the default, practically all of them are broken in this way.
This annoyed me so much that I created my own theme, whose main virtue is that of resizing properly. Feel free to use and adapt it. Just untar it into the wp-content/themes directory.
Carol on March 11, 2008 at 7:10 pm: 13
Who do we write to-and get them to pay attention- about stopping DST and returning to Standard time–or if that is too logical for “Them”-then a modified time frame. We like Standard time, but would suggest -Memorial Day to Labor Day if DST is something that we are stuck with.
Observe Space - Carnival Style -- Observations from Missy’s Window on March 13, 2008 at 9:21 am: 14
[…] Astroprof laments about Daylight Wasting Time? over at Astroprof’s Page. The practice of changing our clocks twice a year seems to be based on antiquated data and the author encourages us to “not pretend that we are saving energy when we are not.” Check it out and weigh in on the topic. […]
Astroprof on March 13, 2008 at 7:47 pm: 15
Carol,
Your state legislature decides if the state adopts DST or not. Congress decides when it starts and stops. So, write to your representatives (state and federal).
Peggy on March 14, 2008 at 12:08 am: 16
Since I’m not a morning person, I’d much prefer that we had DST all year long. I hate that as the day is getting shorter we reset our clocks so that it’s darker even earlier. I suppose I’m in the minority, though.
Kilroy of Aus on March 18, 2008 at 7:12 am: 17
Well well well, what a can of worms, so very complicated.
Now, know that i come form a state ( of Australia) where daylight savings was tried , once, and abandoned, and more then one referendum has said “no” to DST.
But if it is so very wonderful for you, saving. .. whatever blah blah Then ….. Have it 24/365.
Kilroy of Aus.
Zomertijd is helemaal niet energiebesparendbijAstroblogs on March 18, 2008 at 1:52 pm: 18
[…] We moeten maar eens gaan praten met Minister Cramer en haar vragen het hele circus van de zomertijd te stoppen. Bron: Astroprof’s page. […]
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