Chat With Reyn

There is talk of changing it, but only to add a month at the beginning and end.

Yeah, so I heard. That's even more idiotic, as we'll have about 3 months or so of Standard Time. What's the point? If Daylight Savings Time is so bloody good for us, then make it all year round. At least then we can get used to it!

Hey, it was an idea proposed by the U.S. Canada would have to make the decision as what to do here. Since the time thng is controlled by the provinces, they would either all have to agree or it would only be Saskatchewan that was different during DST :-)

Saskatchewan is the only smart one, as far as I can see.

I can agree with keeping the time the same as the States, but this patchwork of time zones is nuts, never mind 3 months of "Standard Time". It's obsolete as far as I'm concerned.

hey reyn, que hora es?

O.K..... Here's the plan. We WON'T change our clocks back on October 30th. If enough of us do that we will control the time and throw everything off kilter. Cows won't milk; chickens won't lay; kids won't sleep; and A2Ker's won't even notice the difference as they type into the night. Yeah, that's the ticket. Everybody leave your clocks and watches as they are.

I beg to differ for myself - as a nightblind person for my whole life, I get shut down for what I can do after the minutes from just before twilight on ... so every hour of extended light in the evening empowers me, and every loss of it turns me from ballsy broad to fragile whatever... a kind of personal fold down and then open up, with each day over months.

October has always been my toughest time of year as I deal with diminished personal mobility.
The upside of this is that Dec 21st is an 'OK, things will improve' day... and I get exceptional joy out of the spring time change.

All the more reason to change this time business to Daylight savings Time all bloody year round then.

None of this wishy washy "we'll add a bit more to what we have now" routine. Why?

I'll say it again. If Daylight Savings Time is so good for us (and I'm not necessarily disagreeing), why don't they institute it all year round?

What's the point of the remaining 3 months of Standard Time, huh?

There's nothing worse than this changing back and forth of the stupid clock. Just bloody well leave it!!!

Anybody know the reasoning behind this?

You're one up on me, pal.

Of what do you speak?

A poll done by the U.S. Department of Transportation indicated that Americans liked Daylight Saving Time because "there is more light in the evenings / can do more in the evenings." A 1976 survey of 2.7 million citizens in New South Wales found 68% liked daylight saving.

Daylight Saving Time also saves energy. Studies done by the U.S. Department of Transportation show that Daylight Saving Time trims the entire country's electricity usage by a significant, but small amount, of about one percent each day with Daylight Saving Time. We save energy because we use less electricity for lighting and appliances. Similarly, In New Zealand, power companies have found that power usage decreases 3.5% when daylight saving starts. In the first week, peak evening consumption commonly drops around 5%.

Energy use and the demand for electricity for lighting our homes is directly connected to when we go to bed and when we get up. Bedtime for most of us is late evening through the year. When we go to bed, we turn off the lights and TV. In the average home, 25 percent of all the electricity we use is for lighting and small appliances, such as TVs, VCRs and stereos. A good percentage of energy consumed by lighting and appliances occurs in the evening when families are home. By moving the clock ahead one hour, we can cut the amount of electricity we consume each day.

In the summer, people who rise before the sun rises are using more energy in the morning than if DST was not in effect. However, although 70% of Americans rise before 7 am, this waste of energy from having less sunlight in the morning is more than offset by the savings of energy that results from more sunlight in the evening.

In the winter, the afternoon Daylight Saving Time advantage is offset for many people and businesses by the morning's need for more lighting. In spring and fall, the advantage is generally less than one hour. So, Daylight Saving Time saves energy for lighting in all seasons of the year, but it saves least during the four darkest months of winter (November, December, January and February) when the afternoon advantage can be offset by the need for lighting because of late sunrise.

Daylight Saving Time "makes" the sun "set" one hour later and therefore reduces the period between sunset and bedtime by one hour. This means that less electricity would be used for lighting and appliances late in the day.

We also use less electricity because we are home fewer hours during the "longer" days of spring and summer. Most people plan outdoor activities in the extra daylight hours. When we are not at home, we don't turn on the appliances and lights.

There is a public health benefit to Daylight Saving Time by decreasing traffic accidents. Several studies in the U.S. and Britain have found that the DST daylight shift reduces net traffic accidents and fatalities by close to one percent. An increase in the dark mornings is more than compensated for by a decrease in the evenings.

Opposition to Daylight Saving

Occasionally people complain about daylight saving time. A frequent complaint is the inconvenience of changing many clocks, and adjusting to a new sleep schedule. For most people, this is a mere nuisance, but some people with sleep disorders find this transition very difficult.

Another complaint is sometimes put forth by people who wake at dawn, or whose schedules are otherwise tied to sunrise, such as farmers. Farmers often dislike the clocks changing mid year. Canadian poultry producer Marty Notenbomer notes, "The chickens do not adapt to the changed clock until several weeks have gone by so the first week of April and the last week of October are very frustrating for us."

In Israel, ultra-Orthodox Sephardic Jews have campaigned against daylight saving time because they recite Slikhot penitential prayers in the early morning hours during the Jewish month of Elul.

A writer in 1947 wrote, "I don't really care how time is reckoned so long as there is some agreement about it, but I object to being told that I am saving daylight when my reason tells me that I am doing nothing of the kind. I even object to the implication that I am wasting something valuable if I stay in bed after the sun has risen. As an admirer of moonlight I resent the bossy insistence of those who want to reduce my time for enjoying it. At the back of the Daylight Saving scheme I detect the bony, blue-fingered hand of Puritanism, eager to push people into bed earlier, and get them up earlier, to make them healthy, wealthy and wise in spite of themselves." (Robertson Davies, The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks, 1947, XIX, Sunday.)

Sometimes people recommend a "compromise" wherein we would set our clocks 1/2 hour forward year round. While this may sound appealing at first , it is not a good solution. In the winter months, when daylight saving is not occurring, our clock is divided such that noon should be the middle of the day (although since time zones are so wide, this does not always happen). In the summer, when the daylight is so long, we want to shift a full hour to the evening.

Some countries set their clocks to fractional time zones, for example, Kathmandu, Nepal is 5:45 hours ahead of Universal Time; and Calcutta (Kolkatta), India is 5:30 ahead. This is because their country straddles international time zones; it is not an attempt to compromise and have half Daylight Saving Time year-round.

Idea of Daylight Saving Time

The idea of daylight saving was first conceived by Benjamin Franklin (portrait at right) during his sojourn as an American delegate in Paris in 1784, in an essay, "An Economical Project." Read more about Franklin's essay.

Some of Franklin's friends, inventors of a new kind of oil lamp, were so taken by the scheme that they continued corresponding with Franklin even after he returned to America.

The idea was first advocated seriously by a London builder, William Willett (1857-1915), in the pamphlet "Waste of Daylight" (1907) that proposed advancing clocks 20 minutes on each of four Sundays in April, and retarding them by the same amount on four Sundays in September. As he was taking an early morning a ride through Petts Wood, near Croydon, Willett was struck by the fact that the blinds of nearby houses were closed, even though the sun was fully risen. When questioned as to why he didn't simply get up an hour earlier, Willett replied with typical British humor, "What?" In his pamphlet "The Waste of Daylight" he wrote:

"Everyone appreciates the long, light evenings. Everyone laments their shortage as Autumn approaches; and everyone has given utterance to regret that the clear, bright light of an early morning during Spring and Summer months is so seldom seen or used".

Great! Thanks for the detailed explanation.

So, when are "they" going to make Daylight Savings Time all year round?

I agree with not changing the time back and forth.

Thanks for the info, coastal rat.

I think I've read a variety of arguments for liking it lighter towards sunrise... those make me tense, but are legitimate from those folks' views.

At the tightest times for me in the darker parts of the year towards evening, I have had to leave work around four to make it home with home not being far away. This has highly affected what jobs I could take.

Well, not to go on and on, but an hour matters for some few with problems like mine - but I admit clocks shouldn't work just for me.

I think coastal rat's data is useful re energy use...

Coastal Rat? Hey, I ain't no clown.

Methinks he's rather more inland.....

So, what then is the explanation for why Daylight Savings has not been made all year round then?

I guess it is too hard for my wee mind... as time changes work west - east and light changes work south - north, so...

it is lighter here on October 20th than in Los Angeles, but less light than where Reyn is...

from the crucial minutes point of view, re fall winter evenings, seems to me I was more desperate for light to last longer for me to get home... in LA, than I have been here, oh, 900 miles north. Changes happening faster....

Sorry, surely I misspoke! Yikes.

there have ben suggestions i believe

It seems that the U.S. will extend daylight savings time.

Following suit, Ontario will change daylight saving time beginning in 2007. Four weeks will be added and it will run from the 2nd Saturday in March to the first Saturday in November.

I do not know what the other provinces will do.

Good morning my fellow A2Kers!

Friday is here at last. Seemed like a long work week, eh?

What are you planning this weekend?

For my wife and I, there is always shopping to catch up on. Butcher, baker, groceries, prescriptions, picking up pet supplies.

We'll see if we can fit something fun in there, too.