US Time Switch Set to Save Energy

Energy savings from DST is a WAG at best. The statisticians figure and the politicians laud the savings real or imagined.

A representative of a large aquarium in Baltimore?? said they were setting their clocks ahead in order to assure that their aquatic denizens would not be affected by the change or some such fuddled muddled statement. I'm dead certain the aquatic animals couldn't give a fig. Seeing that the employess KNOW when the aquatic animals have to be cared for is another matter.

Just another foul up as a result of an uncoordinated bureaucratic snafu.

I tend to agree with you. DST was implemented as a war-time measure to save energy, and never rescinded. I imagine that the folks who did the calculations at that time, didn't say to themselves; "Well we can save this much, or we can save that much", and then took the smaller amount. What our current politicos haven't thought through, is that we're going to have our lights on earlier in the morning now... and consuming energy we wouldn't have before. DST is based on available daylight during the year, and I'd like to see what calculations that this decision was based on before I'm convinced the Politicians aren't doing anything more than patting themselves on the back in front of the cameras and trying to convince the rest of us that they're actually doing something....

Recently I was in Germany, and the company I visited had unused lights turned off. No or minimal lights in hallways, everyone turned off lights when they left their offices, conference rooms, and washrooms. They kept lights off in parts of the plant not currently being used.

By comparison; I work in a energy intensive industry here and we leave street lights burning all day long. Run heaters when no one is using them. Have all lights on all the time. Hallways are bright enough to work under. And the list goes on. The concept here is we use so much energy in the process that the little bit the lights and heaters use is insignificant.

But it is not.

1) I got up in the dark this morning and turned the lights on.

2) I live in Florida. Why would I want more hours of actinic radiation than I'm already getting?

Go figure.

This is true. I'm not convinced that this will save net energy but rather shift the energy use to the morning. However, this can be beneficial when you think about the energy infrastructure and instantaneous demand. 5-7 pm can be a significant demand draw for communities because people come home and turn on lights while offices and businesses are still in operation. In San Francisco, the winter peak period is the biggest problem for the city's energy consumption. This is when the residential load climbs due to heating while the commercial load is still high. I realize we are out of the heating season but the concept is still the same. However, "demand shifting" is not a politically glamourous as "energy conservation" these days.

I guess they figure that fewer lights will be on in the early morning darkness than would be on in the same amount of early evening darkness. Not sure if that is true now or if it is a wash. It might have originally come from our more agrarian past with farmers that need more daylight in the evening for spring plowing, summer harvest, etc. The farm lobby would have been more powerful during the wartime period which was supposedly the genesis of the whole DST concept.

Very good move towards saving of energy and ultimately at some extent controlling pollution. This type of adjustments can be implemented by all countries who can afford it by seeing the geographical location and situation and energy can be saved in the easiest way. Good News.

I heard that as a result of DST many poeple drive to go shopping or elsewhere and that gasoline consumption goes up significantly. This probably negates any savings and could result in increased energy use. The government, in its infinite wisdom, has allocated $180,000,000 to study the resultant savings!

The whole point of DST is to keep the sun shining for most of the day so, if that's what this does then, it only makes sense.

That bit about the company running all of it's lights all the time- even street lights in the daytime- is just a crying shame. They may save some money on light bulbs but I doubt that makes up for the energy cost. They should consider switching to LED bulbs, they last longer than incandescent bulbs but come on just as fast and they are more energy efficient than florescent bulbs. Plus they have richer light spectrums.

"That bit about the company running all of it's lights all the time- even street lights in the daytime- is just a crying shame."

If it will help you we will sit together on the curb at the side of the road and cry our eyes out .... for all the good it will do.

To burn or not to burn, that is the question and the answer differs for various and sundry businesses, manufacturers, schools, office buildings etc. The decisions are usually based on the economics of costs of lamps, replacement labor, shifts working, etc. etc.

I queried a worker replacing a few burned out lamps in one store of a big chain. He said he made spot replacement on call as needed. There was accumulated data as to how often there would be a mass replacement of EVERY lamp in the store based on average expected service life, cost of lamps, cost of replacement. He had a full time job in a specified area to meet the establishe criteria.

See here: www.elecosn.com

Here are dimmable LED Bulb, and LED incandescent bulb

My reply to blog entry:
The same thing was tried to adopt in Pakistan; [Light-saving] just to follow West; without having a thought on facts.
In one regime it was cancelled at 11th hour; as the so-called "Techno-crats" dyeing-hard to implement were confused about shifting the clock ahead or revers.

In the 2nd regime it was implemented on the 1st of April [1st April Fools] at 12:00 Night without knowing when & at what time to be changed.

It remained effective for 1 year; [GOD Blessed] & cancelled all this nuisance.

I think all over the world all <Insiders> can not say facts in front of <Top-Brass>.

During this period I had been in discussion*** on the subject with a lot of people from various countries.

*** I think it was CR4's discussion as far I remember

I put following points & observations as I still have no reply or knowledge about my queries.

1. There is on day in the year of 23 Hrs & 1 of 25 Hrs.
How the happenings / incidents reported by concerned Agencies in their logs?

2. Before this DST [Light-Saving] the Sun, Moon & the universe has no consideration for DST or else.

Sun will rise & set at the Schedule set by Nature.
And Nature's Time also.

3. In our counties of Indo-Pak-Sub-Continent ### Standing Orders exist for Summer & Winter Timings for offices, Schools etc etc AND IT THE HUMAN BEING TO SET ITSELF TO CHANGED TIME.

### And in all those countries who have not adopted DST [Light-Saving]

NO re-setting of Watches & Clocks by millions of people & NO Confusions [from Watches/ Clocks] if not done the night before.

In Winter you go an hour late & in summer earlier.

4. I remember during WWII, cocks were advanced by 1 Hr & hope it was some Strategic reason behind it & not Light-Saving.

Please read para 4. as corrected below:

4. I remember during WWII, CLOCKs were advanced by 1 Hr & think it was some Strategic reason behind it & not Light-Saving.

Seems to me if a country has several time zones anyway, that the "energy benefits" would only apply to the entry or exit zone - or generation demand would just roll across 'sooner' or 'later'.

"Local Time" is just about getting people synchronised for some local interaction or task. Given it can be an hour, or hour and a half, different across a State line, it's a nominal concept at best.

All daylight saving does is move the 'mid day referenced' mid point of a zone more toward the reference it should be to - dawn.

Or I agree with the previous comment of a company setting 'seasonal start times', to suit its local conditions - as many do.

Of some amusement, when daylight saving was introduced in Australia, the next thing that happened was the introduction of "flexi-time" for public servants. Meaning half turned up at the 'new 10 am'. So much for the efficiency of 'synchronising'