We discussed daylight savings time briefly in class last week and I know some of us were interested in learning more about it. This website provides a very thorough tutorial on the history of daylight savings, countries that participate, its purpose, and the effects it has had on energy consumption thus far. I found the history of each country's daylight savings policies the most interesting.
The tutorial is clear and concise, and raises some interesting questions about efforts being made to reduce energy consumption. Some questions I had after reading through the website are:
-How effective is daylight savings in practice? How much daylight are we really saving, and how does this translate into decreased power consumption?
-Is there more potential to conserve daylight in different regions of the globe? If so, how have those regions responded through enacting legislature dealing with daylight savings time policies?
Another interesting paradox I thought of when reading through the website was this: why was daylight savings enacted in the U.S. as early as it was when we had no real way to capture the power of the sun? How did daylight savings help conserve energy when we didn't have solar panels to capture the energy in the first place?
The website is kind of long, but you can jump around the pages to find the interesting parts. I strongly recommend it; it has some really cool information about the history of energy policy and daylight savings around the world.
The link to the website is:
http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/index.html
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2 comments:
Hello Fellow Energy Consumers,
My gratitude to Jensen as this is a great website and a topic I was interested in, Thanks! I find it funny that the author dedicates a whole mini section to the grammar and spelling of Daylight Saving (no s!) Time, and the title of this blog is still Daylight SavingS. This is no way a criticism of this post, and I am grateful that Jensen has found such a splendid site, but rather proves my point. The reason for the Daylight Saving is very complex and also ambiguous. Maneuvering through the site I got a lot of history, which brings me to my point. I really think that this issue has been dealt improperly. I am a freak of nature, and therefore, I find it annoying that some of the time zones already are irregularly placed (London and Paris are two different time zones!) I believe that these time zones and DSTs are an important part of society and should be strictly regulated. I do not think that they should be internationally timed, because all nations function differently, but some people should think about the energy situation we live in today and try to do something.
From the website I understood that there were a lot of ups and downs due to this shift in time. For example, while at some points it is better to have light at night, others need it in the morning, and vice versa. All in all, we need light, and we just don’t have it! Daylight Saving is complex in that it involves the actions of the human being. We all do different things at different times; therefore, it is complicated to manage the light that each individual needs. Many people, including me, need more light later in the day because of all the after-school activities, but early-birds have to drive in the morning. Because of the vast use of our day, it has been hard for the Department of Transportation to set a good time, date and length.
To answer the last couple of questions, today, the first day of daylight saving time, I was blissfully awoken by the wonderful morning sunlight; however, that is not a response to daylight saving, because in a spring shift, I would lose time, therefore, receive the sunlight at a later hour, but, because of my superb slothness, I stayed in bed until the sun rose. But to seriously answer your question, I would gain time at night and use less of my ECO-FRIENDLY COMPACT FLOURESCENT LIGHT BULB! It is a matter of using the light for other energy uses then to simply capture it using solar panels. Also, who stays indoors when it is sun out? Seriously! People tend to stay outdoors when it is sunny and not inside using appliances and such.
PS: Daylight Savings Time definitely flows more mellifluously off my tongue, so lets keep it and let the grammar nuts be angered at us.
I’ve been thinking about Daylight Saving Time and I find it hard to believe that humans can just change time as they please. I find it eerie and actually representative of the human race. We crave control; we’ve defeated God, logic and space thus time was next frontier we had to conquer. But, aside from my philosophical thoughts, I think there are other reasons behind Daylight Saving Time. In 2005, the Bush Administration passed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 which pushed forward the dates of the time switches ahead a month. As well this act wanted to provide more financial aid to companies and individuals that use more eco-friendly energy. Another reason for the introduction of this act was for safety reasons according to the Secretary of Energy; the number of car crashes and vehicular accidents was projected to decline because many older and less experienced drivers opt to stay off the road when it’s dark. This act was going to weed out those bad drivers, thus making safer road conditions. But since when was the Bush Administration cared for energy efficiency or the elderly? There aren’t many conspiracy theories on the web concerning the Bush Administration and Daylight Saving Time, but I managed to find one attempting to connect Vice President Dick Cheney (and his ties to Halliburton) and the institution of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 but it wasn’t well thought out…If anyone finds any additional information agreeing/disagreeing with this idea, please add on!
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