Changing the Clocks

What’s wrong with Daylight-Saving Time (DST)?

Benjamin Franklin first suggested it and most of his ideas were really good, like volunteer fire departments, free public libraries, mutual insurance, bi-focal glasses and others that are still around to day. Daylight-Saving Time might have been a good idea more than 200 hundred years ago, although I doubt it.

It doesn't save daylight. Daylight can’t be saved or affected at all by human actions. The attempt is akin to teaching a pig to sing; the poor performance hardly amuses anyone and it needlessly irritates the pig.

So why be troubled by the minor irritation twice yearly clock adjustments? Several reasons come to my mind.

One is, the average person has many more clocks today, not just a single house clock and one pocket watch. They are everywhere today. Nearly every electronic gadget, TV's, computers, microwaves, PDA's, cars, refrigerators and washers, telephones, recorders and players of all kinds, cellphones, watches and alarm clocks. I wouldn't be surprised if the average household doesn't more than 20 clocks.

Another is it’s unnecessary. Choose a clock setting for your region and stick to it. You can’t save time or make daylight or save it. Just choose an official time for region that is roughly balanced in spring and fall with the sun casting its shortest shadow about 12:00 noon, then leave it that way.

Next, I have searched and cannot find any scientific data for energy savings. People adjust their activities for a lot of reasons, for instance, is daylight needed for this activity. Businesses, organizations, and individuals all change their behaviors, start and stop times, choices of activities based upon seasons, likely weather, religious holidays, family needs and personal recreation, only secondarily to which number the clock points. Appointments and schedules of all kinds refer to clock times and many cultures value doing things according to a schedule although not always a specific hour of the day. It would be more sensible and easier to adjust schedules an hour one way or the other in winter or summer.

What does all that mean regarding energy saving. People have things they need to do and things they wish to do. Given opportunity and resources they will do them whenever it’s valuable or timely for them. So, even if they are conservative with their time and money, they must use many kinds of energy each day. Gasoline to drive to work, electricity or natural gas to get ready for work, store and prepare food, warm or cool a house, do home maintenance and repair, and enjoy leisure time. What time the clock says doesn't effect how much energy these tasks use, for instance a working couple pretty much must wash cloths each week, get ready for work and travel there each work day.

I can find no sensible reason to have DST. It’s just become a cultural habit. Politicians recently extended the length DST using it to act like they cared about people and their energy costs. It was something they could do to make it look like they were doing something. If they would release the congressional study of energy saving analysis, everyone would know it saves nothing. They might also discover that it endangers school children who now stand by busy roads waiting for school buses in the dark.

A better solution would be to have organizations and individuals change their operating hours to maximize safety and energy saving, matching relevant activities to daylight or dark regardless where the hands on the clock point or which numbers are on the digital display.

Forget trying to save daylight or time by constantly and mindlessly adjusting clocks.