Congress moves up Daylight Savings Time 3 Weeks Early

boxwine_in_hell

Somebody that is a lot smarter than me please explain this to me. I keep reading and hearing that Congress has moved up Daylight Savings Time by 3 weeks this year to "save on energy costs". This makes absolutely no sense to my logical mind. There still will be the same amount of darkness, the earth doesn't care that some silly humans are changing their perception and measuring of time. And in fact by my estimation that extra hour of darkness in the morning is colder than the hour of darkness in the evening if you are in fact acknowledging the measure of time. So wouldn't it actually cost a little more to heat up a building that has more morning darkness hours than evening? This is the kind of stuff that keeps me up at night. Like I said, someone smarter than me please help me understand this quandry. Thanks.

hippiemom

boxwine_in_hell wrote:

Somebody that is a lot smarter than me please explain this to me. I keep reading and hearing that Congress has moved up Daylight Savings Time by 3 weeks this year to "save on energy costs". This makes absolutely no sense to my logical mind. There still will be the same amount of darkness, the earth doesn't care that some silly humans are changing their perception and measuring of time. And in fact by my estimation that extra hour of darkness in the morning is colder than the hour of darkness in the evening if you are in fact acknowledging the measure of time. So wouldn't it actually cost a little more to heat up a building that has more morning darkness hours than evening? This is the kind of stuff that keeps me up at night. Like I said, someone smarter than me please help me understand this quandry. Thanks.

It's not the heat, it's the lights. Most buildings have the heat on 24/7 anyway, although they may have the thermostat set lower during off hours. With the additional hour, people go home at the end of the day and don't have to turn their lights on until 7pm, instead of at 6 like they do today.

boxwine_in_hell

hippiemom wrote:

It's not the heat, it's the lights. Most buildings have the heat on 24/7 anyway, although they may have the thermostat set lower during off hours. With the additional hour, people go home at the end of the day and don't have to turn their lights on until 7pm, instead of at 6 like they do today.

So does that extra hour of not needing a light counterbalance the extra energy to maintain a certain temperature in the building with the extra morning darkness? Seems like a bit of bull to me, Congress should just say that they want to go for more evening strolls earlier this year. I think that would be closer to the truth.

floyd1975

boxwine_in_hell wrote:

So does that extra hour of not needing a light counterbalance the extra energy to maintain a certain temperature in the building with the extra morning darkness? Seems like a bit of bull to me, Congress should just say that they want to go for more evening strolls earlier this year. I think that would be closer to the truth.

It's way too cold here for the evening stroll. Part of it was that people are happier during daylight savings too.

hippiemom

boxwine_in_hell wrote:

So does that extra hour of not needing a light counterbalance the extra energy to maintain a certain temperature in the building with the extra morning darkness? Seems like a bit of bull to me, Congress should just say that they want to go for more evening strolls earlier this year. I think that would be closer to the truth.

I don't think there's a big difference with the heat. Most people have their homes at the same temperature 24 hours a day, or they turn it down just a few degrees while they sleep, and most businesses only turn the heat way down on the weekends, because it's not efficient to have to heat a large space from a low temperature every single day.

jlew24asu

this is fuckin up the IT world. (that stands for information technology, not it.)

surferdude

jlew24asu wrote:

this is fuckin up the IT world. (that stands for information technology, not it.)

This type of thing is great for IT. Gives us easy work that no one else understands.

Uncle Leo

It's a way for congress to say "we're doing something to save resources" And then people can feel good about it without having to do a damn thing.

I like it because I love daylight savings time. I'd rather it be all year. I can live with it being dark at 8:30 AM in December, but I cannot stand when it is dark at 4:30.

And yes, our IT guy has had to do some runnin' around lf late.

boxwine_in_hell

Hey I like more daylight in the evening too, who doesn't? So why don't they just say that? It's ridiculous to come up with this "saving energy" bullshit. Do they really think we're that stupid?

jlew24asu

surferdude wrote:

This type of thing is great for IT. Gives us easy work that no one else understands.

thats true. my company is sending out a windows registry patch to 900+ PC's across the network. MOST will have to be done manually. I cant wait. :(

floyd1975

In 2005, Reps. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Fred Upton (R-Mich.) passed an amendment to the energy bill changing the start of daylight-saving time.

“[Daylight] saving just brings a smile to everybody’s faces. We all just feel sunnier after we set the clocks ahead,” Markey said at the time in a statement.

Markey last week said the change is supported by research showing that longer days decrease fatal traffic accidents, reduce crime and provide relief for individuals suffering from night blindness.

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/congressquots-spring-forward-presents-a-y2k-problem-2007-02-27.html

know1

I personally do not care why they did it, but I'm glad they did. I'd be happy to have it this way all year 'round. I like having more light in the evenings and I do not care about light in the mornings.

Jeanwah

I read somewhere that the purpose of changing DST is to create the essence of summer sun shining into windows to create extra heat in the late afternoon hours.

I don't know, but the longer day will sure help me with my cabin fever and Seasonal-Affected Depression of having limited sunlight.

even flow?

jlew24asu wrote:

this is fuckin up the IT world. (that stands for information technology, not it.)

They are treating it like it is y2k. And I am not joking.

JaneNY

So as of this weekend, we'll have up here, zero degree weather with daylight savings. Pretty weird. One usually associates daylight savings with coming of spring, but spring is a LONG way away - we had 20 below zero last night.