Daylight Saving Time

Concept of Daylight Saving

Every year some countries move their clocks forward only in the spring to bring them back in the fall. To the vast majority of the world who doesn't participate in this odd clock fiddling, it seems a baffling thing to do. So what's the reason behind it? The first idea, proposed by George Hudson, was to give people more sunlight in the summer. Of course, it is important to note that changing the clock does not produce sunlight which is not the way physics works. However, by moving the clock forward one hour, compared with all other human activities, the sun will appear to rise and set later.

The time when the clocks are moved forward is called Daylight Saving Time and the rest of the year is called Standard Time. These changes give people more time to enjoy the sunshine and the beautiful summer weather after work. Hudson, in particular, wanted more sunlight so he could spend more time adding to his insect collection. When winter comes the clocks are back, probably because people will no longer want to go outside. However, winter does not have this effect on everyone.

When do the Clocks Change

If you live in a tropical area like Hawaii, you don't have to worry about the seasons because they don't happen. Every day, all year is sunny and beautiful so Christmas is just as good of a day to hit the beach like any other. Therefore, Hawaii is one of two unions in the Union that ignore the time to save time. However, if you continue to travel from the equator to any of the seasons, you will experience the coldest and darkest winters, making the summer season very important for the local people. So it's no surprise that the further a country is from the equator the more likely it use daylight saving time.

Hudson proposed his idea in Wellington in 1895, but it was not well received and it was not until 1916 that Germany became the first country to use it. However, industrious Germans did not bother to catch butterflies on a beautiful summer night rather than to save fuel to feed a war machine. The Germans thought that saving time would save energy. The reasoning goes that it encourages people to say out later in the summer and thus use less artificial lighting. This sounds logical, and it may have worked back in the more regimented society of a hundred years ago, but does it still work in the modern world? That is simply a difficult question to answer. For example, consider the greatest human invention: AIR CONDITIONING.

Problems When Studying Daylight Saving Time

A wonderful cool box that makes uninhabited parts of the world into the most tolerant places to live. However, pumping heat into your home is not cheap, and turning on a single air-conditioner is like using a lot of tungsten light bulbs. If people get more sunlight but do not use it to go outside when Saving Day can be costly, we may not save it. This is particularly true in a place like Phoenix, where the average summer high is 107 degrees and the record are 122. If you suggest to an Arizonian to change their clocks in the summer to get more sunshine, they laugh in your face. More sun and higher electricity bills are not what they want which is why Arizona is the second state that never changes its clocks.

Another problem when trying to study daylight saving time is the rapid change in technology and the use of electricity. And as technology gets better and better and better more electricity is dedicated to things that aren't light bulbs. And the lure of a hot, sweaty, mosquito-infested day is no less appealing than the technology and indoor climate. And terribly tungsten light bulbs have been unstoppable for 100 years and are open to CFLs and LEDs; greatly reducing the amount of energy needed to light a room. So, even assuming DST is active, it probably doesn't work well for the rest of the year.

The bottom line is while some studies say DST costs more electricity and others say it saves electricity. The one thing they agree on is the effect size, not 20% or 10% but 1% or less; which in the United States, works out to be about $4 per household. $4 saved or spent on electricity over an entire year is not a huge deal either way.

When is Daylight Savings

So the question now becomes is the hassle of switching the clocks twice a year worth it? The most obvious trouble comes from sleep deprivation, an already common problem in the western world that DST makes measurably worse. With time tracking software we can see that people are not producing as much in a week after the clock changes. This comes with huge associated costs. To make matters worse, many countries are taking that bedtime Monday morning. Sleep deprivation can lead to heart attacks and suicides and Monday Day Light Day has a higher rate than usual.

Other problems arise from arranging meetings in all areas of time. Let's say that you are trying to plan a three-way conference between New York, London, and Sydney, that is not an easy thing to do under the best of circumstances but made extra difficult when they don't agree on when daylight saving time should start and end.

In the spring, Sydney is 11 hours ahead of London and New York is five hours behind. However, New York is the first to enter Daylight Saving Time and move its clock forward by an hour. Two weeks later London does the same. One week, Sydney, on the other side of the country, leaves time to save the day and sets the clock back an hour. So in the space of three weeks, New York is five hours behind London, then four hours, and then five hours again. And Sydney is either11, 10, or 9 nine hours from London and 16, 15, or 14 hours from New York. And this whole crazy thing happens again in reverse six months later.

Back in the dark ages, this might not have mattered so much but in the modern. Interconnected world planning international meetings happens thousands of times, daily shifting and inconsistent time zones aren't doing netizens any favors. And, to make matters worse, countries aren't even consistent about daylight saving time within their borders. Brazil has daylight saving time, but only if you live in the south. Canada also has, but not Saskatchewan.

Most of Oz does DST, but not Western Australia, The Northern Territory, or Queensland. And, of course, the United States has DST, unless you live in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Marianas Islands or, as mentioned before Hawaii and Arizona. But Arizona isn't even consistent within itself. While Arizona is ignoring DST, the Navaho Nation within Arizona is following suit. Inside of the Navaho Nation is the Hopi Reservation which is like Arizona, ignores daylight saving time. Going deeper, inside of the Hopi Reservation is another part of the Navaho Nation which does follow daylight saving time. And finally, there is a part of booking Hopi somewhere in the Navaho tribe that does not. So driving across this hundred-mile stretch would technically necessitate seven clock changes which are insane. While this is an unusual landmark here is a map showing the different rules of daylight saving and time zones in all their complex glory.

It's a huge mess and constantly needs updating as countries change their laws. That is why it should come as no surprise that even our digital gadgets cannot keep up with the times.

Conclusion:

Daylight saving time gives more sunlight in the summer after work, which, depending on where you live might be an advantage or not. And it may (or may not) save electricity but one thing is for sure, it's guaranteed to make something that should be simple, keeping track of time, quite complicated; when it comes time to change the clocks are always a debate about whether or not we should.

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