(H/t Zach Wendling at In The Agora). An article at WSJ.com indicates that energy savings from Daylight Saving Time generally and the recent extensions specifically are unclear at best. The data is very old, for one thing. Americans use energy a lot differently than they did in the 70s. Furthermore, extending DST into times of the year with less available daylight makes it more likely that any savings enjoyed by more light in the afternoon and evening will be offset by less light during morning hours.
Indiana apparently could have provided a potential test area until recently:
To get reliable data about the time change in the U.S., “the best experiment would be to randomly assign different time schedules to different states,” Prof. Wolff said. He points out that his Australia study is the only only one to compare, concurrently, extended daylight time with the alternative in the neighboring states.
That model isn’t realistic, politically, on a national scale in the U.S. But in Indiana, until last year, daylight-saving time took effect in only part of the state. “It would provide an interesting test bed,” says Doug Gotham, director of the state’s utility forecasting group. But he doesn’t know of any such study to date.
I generally have disliked DST from the outset, was opposed to Indiana ever going on it, thought the old standard time worked well for Indiana’s sunrises & sunsets. But, I am going to admit this one thing…extending DST by one week so that it covered Halloween this year was a definite plus–we got most of our trick-or-treating in before sunset this year. Okay, that’s a very small counterbalance to the dubious-ness of the energy savings & the screwing up of circadian rythyms & trying to get kids to bed at a decent hour in the summer when it’s light until 10:30 p.m. …
Last night, the sun set before 5 p.m….sigh. Oh how I detest CST!
Rev –
Most of us are back on EST, now – I take it you are in one of the CST spots?
Yes, I’m in Lake County.At least it’s not as bad as when I lived in Minnesota…in December the sun would rise after 8 am and set before 4 pm.
Could be worse – at least you were south of the Arctic Circle!
Some, anyway…
Yeah, if I lived around the Arctic circle I would become manic depressive. Manic in the summer with all the light and depressive in the winter.