Daylight "Savings" Time?

byBridges

210 followers

4 years ago

Has anyone actually saved "time" with daylight savings time?? You take an hour off one end and add it to the other; so where does time savings come into this? Time wasted, on the other hand, is millions of people-hours used twice a year (an average of 15 minutes per household) changing clocks back and forth.

What was the reason for starting this nonsense in March of 1918? It was supposed to be "energy" savings to conserve fuel during WWI. Back then, of course, many rural localities didn't even have electricity but, assuming you did, then it didn't provide much more than lighting. So turning the lights on an hour earlier so you could leave them off an hour longer in the evening might have saved a little electricity but there is no real proof that it did.

Today, having the afternoon sun shine on us an hour longer in the summer would most likely cost more in air conditioning than savings on lights, especially since we use LED bulbs now. Then take into consideration that much of our energy, at least in the west, is produced by solar panels that don't really care what time it is but just function from sunrise to sunset; it is ridiculous to point to economics regarding daylight saving time. We really DON'T save "energy" with DST.

For many years the proponents of DST have blamed it on farmers. That just does not pan out. Farmers start their day with the rooster crow (sunrise) and end it when the natural light is gone (sunset). For them the shift in time has no effect because, with the exception of going to church on Sundays, most farmers don't even wear a watch. They come in for breakfast after the cows are milked and the eggs gathered; and lunch and dinner by the bell, or at a breaking point in working the fields. No, farmers have never been the reason for DST!

So, DST does not save time and it does not save energy. What is its real purpose?? I don't have an answer for that, perhaps you can provide one for me.

What I do know is that at the change-over in the spring there is data to show there are more auto accidents because people have not yet adjusted and are still "sleepy" when heading to work. There is also evidence to support a drop in productivity when they get on the job. After all, we are all born with a "circadian clock" inside our bodies that does not adjust itself to DST. It does react to our health in the same way that changing shifts at work or jet lag does, however.

So, if you are having trouble adjusting this week, after going back to "standard" time, you may want to analyse whether or not this DST is really "saving" anything and provide some feedback to our politicians.

As for me, I am happy to live in Arizona. We are only one of two states in the U.S. that does NOT do DST and we all actually save time twice a year by NOT adjusting our clocks.

Archie