Net Effect Of Energy-Saving Early Switch To Daylight Savings Time: Nothing

from the didn't-see-this-one-coming dept

Tue, Apr 3rd 2007 4:42am — Carlo Longino

While the early switch to daylight savings didn't cause many real problems, it was something of a nuisance. Part of the supposed rationale for the early switch -- in addition to reduced crime, less traffic accidents and increased economic activity was to save energy, because there will be more light in the evening and people will use less lighting. Of course, there's less light in the morning, so people's power needs then will increase. So what was the end effect of this early shift? Essentially nothing, as several large utilities say they haven't seen any noticeable change in their customers' power consumption. But don't let that detract from the warm, fuzzy feeling you get knowing American politicians are serious in their hunt for ways to conserve energy.

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billy, 3 Apr 2007 @ 5:04am

Ha
They are serious in their hunt. And they are about as effective at it as they are everything else, except wasting our money.
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_Jon, 3 Apr 2007 @ 5:13am

I think it is stupid to even have it.
I think Congress has over-stepped their boundaries when they created DST.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Apr 2007 @ 5:17am

A war almost noone wants, and this fine subject. I guess you guys were all very, very brilliant when you elected all those fine Republicans a few years back. This, the best we could come up with, vunderfull!!!!! Politics aside, what idiot thought of this brilliant idea again? Lets make him Pres, so that we can make this one look like a saint.
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Peter, 3 Apr 2007 @ 5:30am

Even the best estimates of savings were only a fraction of 1%. You could raise the CAFE standard by 1 MPG and do far better than that.
Just a stupid feel-good measure since there are no anti-DST lobbyists to oppose it.
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KevinG79, 3 Apr 2007 @ 6:02am

Only in the USA
Leave it to Bush & company to implement yet another pointless bill that does absolutely NOTHING good (except waste more money and, ironically, time) and makes us look like a country full of bumbling idiots. I am so sick of being embarrassed to live in the "United" States of Mindless Morons...

Thank God Dubya and his political circus can NOT run again in 08. I'm counting the days...
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billy, 3 Apr 2007 @ 6:11am

Voting
I would just like to point out, I did not vote for said moron or his group. And if memory serves me correctly, he still lost the popular vote .. twice.
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Anony, 3 Apr 2007 @ 6:17am

Re: Voting
I didn't vote for him either, but he did win the popular vote the second time (the first time, he won the popular vote...of the judges).
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Gotta Love It, 3 Apr 2007 @ 6:17am

DST . . .
What's the matter guys, you don't like an extra hour of daylight at the end of the day? I love it - more bike riding, more time to work in the yard, or just to sit on the deck drinking beer! Get over your obsession with politicians and just enjoy the sunshine!
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Roy, 3 Apr 2007 @ 6:18am

Not about energy
As was pointed out in a NPR piece the weekend before the Spring Forward, DST isn't about energy. It's about giving mindless consumers an extra hour of shopping inducement after work. Keeping that in mind makes it easier to explain why Congre$$ is so in favor.
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Luke, 3 Apr 2007 @ 6:22am

Voting
Since when has popular vote mattered in our election process? We're a democratic republic - not a majoity rule. There's a reason for the electoral college - to keep people like John Kerry out.

Secondly, DST has been on the books well before Bush took office. It just seemed like a good idea to bump up the start time (ok, I admit between that sounding dumb and it being dumb someone thought it was a good enough idea).

Secondly this was backed by a lot of people in Congress...thus making it both a Republican and a Democrat problem.

On a side note to AC #3, DST was thought up by Benjamin Franklin...I doubt you want him as president at this point (I'm fairly certain he wouldn't take it if elected.)
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bmojo, 3 Apr 2007 @ 6:29am

PermaDST
We should be on DST permanently. Who needs it to be light at 6:30am anyway. More daylight when you get off of work sounds better than more daylight while your cruising to work.
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Eddie Turner, 3 Apr 2007 @ 6:29am

DST
Leave it to Liberals to find fault with having an extra hour to enjoy this beautiful Spring weather. This confirms their status as gloom and doom negative pessimists.

Did you ever notice how conservative people are usually happier, more positive and optimistic than liberal people? It seems Liberals aren't happy unless they have things to complain about, real or imagined.
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Republican Gun, 3 Apr 2007 @ 6:33am

Stupid liberal comments
"A war almost noone wants, and this fine subject. I guess you guys were all very, very brilliant when you elected all those fine Republicans a few years back. This, the best we could come up with, vunderfull!!!!! Politics aside, what idiot thought of this brilliant idea again? Lets make him Pres, so that we can make this one look like a saint."

STFU. You are stupid. You are a blind liberal who probably dresses like a factory worker but had never worked a day your life.
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Your Mother, 3 Apr 2007 @ 6:36am

Re:
Hey _Jon, Congress didn't creat DST...
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Lewis Salem, 3 Apr 2007 @ 6:39am

Agitprop posts turning forum into digg.com
This is not about liberal vs. conservative. It is about the justification of DST as a power saving mechanism.

People: please take the highroad and don't feed the trolls! I think it may be time to build in an "ignore user" button.
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Ted, 3 Apr 2007 @ 6:41am

Re: DST . . .
Hear hear! I love the extra evening light! Not just for biking - walking the dog, etc. It's nice to have daylight for that "unwind" time at the end of the day.
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BottomLine, 3 Apr 2007 @ 6:41am

DST
Let me get this straight... life is about who's right and who's wrong? Get over yourself... go and enjoy the extra hour of daylight.

If you truly are a tree hugger, extending daylight savings gives you a little more daylight to hug a few more. Knock yourself out... there's plenty to hug (I'm sure you can argue that too.)

Go get some extra sunshine... you're probably pale enough as it is... and no... computer monitors won't give you a tan.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Apr 2007 @ 6:48am

Re:
What congress should have been doing is legislate a limit on the number of comments, blogs and posts that liberals can post in a day on the subject of Bush and the freakin' war. We get it, you hate Bush. The revenge for Clinton-hater era is complete.
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Matthew, 3 Apr 2007 @ 6:48am

AZ & IN have it right
No DST. All of you other people can go ahead and play with your clocks all you like, but the sun still rises and sets on its schedule.

DST legislation is merely an attempt to make the shops open at more favorable hours so you'll spend more money. Well if the shops need to alter their hours to entice more customers, don't you think they'd do that anyway? Do we really need to waste time on LAWS for this stuff? The candy lobby is happy because now Halloween falls within the DST parameters which they feel will equate to more candy sales. Apparently, it just adds to alcohol sales and Liberal bashing.

There are bigger and more important issues to deal with over people adjusting their clocks twice a year. If you want to alter this law, do so by getting rid of it.
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b, 3 Apr 2007 @ 6:49am

Re: DST
i'm a liberal and very happy. i have some issues with the dominant paradigm, but i roll with the punches. What is about conservatives that make them always start up with the personal assaults toward people they don't know every time a political debate is raised. i'm very liberal and very happy to have more daylight at the end of the day, and yeah, it was a pain to have to go out and touch every pc in our domain to make the updates necessary to deal with the calendar change. However, it gave us an excuse to make some other improvements and updates that i'm happy about (not to mention the overtime!). By the way what is Conservative about wasting as many resources as possible to accomplish nothing. I am a conservationist. Conservatives are just people who don't like alternative opinions in the present political atmosphere. They don't conserve anything, because God is gonna pop out of the sky and take all their buddies to heaven for a kegger sometime soon....
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TheDock22, 3 Apr 2007 @ 6:50am

Re: DST
Leave it to Liberals to find fault with having an extra hour to enjoy this beautiful Spring weather. This confirms their status as gloom and doom negative pessimists.

Yes, and leave it to the conservatives to say what's on their mind AFTER the liberals have their shot. Lazy conservatives.

But as far as DST goes, I might be more inclined to "enjoy" the sunshine if it was not for the fact that it has been snowing for the past week! Maybe DST makes more sense in the Southern states, but up North it is just an excuse to drudge up the semi-annual memory of how to reset every clock in the house.
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Overcast, 3 Apr 2007 @ 7:06am

yeah, it was a pain to have to go out and touch every pc in our domain to make the updates necessary to deal with the calendar change. However, it gave us an excuse to make some other improvements and updates that i'm happy about (not to mention the overtime!). By the way what is Conservative about wasting as many resources as possible to accomplish nothing.

No, actually our conservative IT department used WSUS to push out the DST patch, so we didn't waste all our time going to each PC, it was automatic. Imagine that.

All this is, is Bush's way of trying to seem 'eco-friendly'. Because it's a 'trendy' thing now to babble on about the environment.

Maybe if these hypocritical politicians, the LEFT included, would quit fly private jets everywhere, only to get off the jet and hop in a Limo, then 'greenhouse' gases wouldn't be so much of an issue.

The left..... the right..... they just have different methods of bending over the population and then stealing from them blind.

Do you people seriously think with all the politics involved there's an SCIENTIFIC truth to global warming?

Usually, when politics is involved - science is not. REAL science anyway... :)
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Devious, 3 Apr 2007 @ 7:14am

More Energy Savings....
Lets get the Politicians on board for this one....
Lets remove the DRM from all Media, this will save energy by reducing the CPU usage on the computers by not having to decode the music and videos.
Thus Saving Energy.....
Throw in a S.W.A.G. of 12% savings with no DRM....

Not to mention, the Record and Movie Industry might make More Money!
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Anonymous Trivia Nazi, 3 Apr 2007 @ 7:16am

Energy saved, then wasted again
All of the energy saved by shifting the time has been lost to the collective energy required to publish all of the extra "S" characters from all the articles and people who still say "Daylight SavingS Time" instead of "Daylight Saving Time". I am hereby lobbying for replacing the first space with a hyphen (no additional character) to ensure a more consistent dropping of the extraneous "S" -- a net saving of 1 character in a 21-character string -- or better than 4.75%!

Refer to the article, endorsed by the official government time site.

Happy Daylight-Saving Time,
ATN
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Unknowledgeable Geek, 3 Apr 2007 @ 7:20am

Costs....
Now I am a fan of more daylight in the evening. I wake up at 6 it is dark i got home at 6 it is dark, it has changed now, i am thankful for that. But, to say that there were no costs associated with the new DST is ignorant. I work in the IT field and there are several companies out there that spent a lot of money fixing there computers and email systems and blackberries to make sure the new DST would be reflected in there computers. Now if this cost causes me to spend more money on a product, I don't know how much daylight that is worth.

Just a thought....
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Overcast, 3 Apr 2007 @ 7:28am

Yeah, see - Devious is on track now..

Get Al Gore, GW Bush, John Kerry, Jeb Bush, Nancy Pelosi, and all the rest of these elite snobs to drop the heat 2 degrees in their 24,000 square foot mansions. Maybe they should fly commercial instead of in their comfy little private jets.

Or perhaps just maybe not leave their limos idling all day. Or perhaps even only have ONE mansion to heat and not 3 or 4...

And they sit and watch the population go back and forth supporting their side while they get richer and laugh at us all.

It's like taking sides between ol' Joe Stalin and lil' Buddy Adolf Hitler.

They sit in their posh mansions - telling *US* to conserve power, ROFLMFAO. They are the ones elected to deal with these issues - wanna conserve power? Start by mandating all members of government start flying using COMMERCIAL planes, not private. Then next, knock them off their pedistal of self-importance and sell the limos to the music industry and pay some of the national debt.

Hybrids are such wonderful cars? Ok, then give each member of congress a nice little hybrid they can put their own fat ass behind the driver seat of and drive the mo$%ther fu%#er...

You know what - UNTIL congress does that... I'm going to gas up each day at high noon, and look for a V8 to buy.

Oh nm - they'd love that too, since they have the gas companies in their right pocket.

Or wait - that's just the republicans...

Yeah, the democrats have the battery and capacitor companies in their pockets...

Ahhh, now I see the real reason we need to switch to hybrids..

You people that wanna come in here and argue for one side or the other... Take comfort in the fact that you are mindless partisan sheep. Open your eyes and see that both sides are screwing you....

Seriously - if Al Gore was SO very worried about the environment - would he really be 'ok' with 3 mansions and flying a private jet?

And... ROFL no.... energy credits do nothing to stop carbon emissions from the private jets and coal power plants he's using to keep him fat and happy.

*swoosh* I'm captain energy credit and I've come to take away Al Gore's smog

lol

I just sit back and think..... WTF?
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Stute, 3 Apr 2007 @ 7:39am

Serious in the hunt...
As long as it makes them money...
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TheDock22, 3 Apr 2007 @ 7:44am

Re:
Okay Overcast, I think some has had one too many drinks already today.

Congress is not telling people to conserver energy outright. They are just hoping by pushing back DST that people will naturally use less energy. If everyone had to abide by your dumb little rant, we'd all have hybrid cars, live in the same sized house, and fly commercial. Hmm...sounds like a sci-fi movie to me.
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Ryan, 3 Apr 2007 @ 7:51am

Just change the work day
Why don't we just leave the clocks alone. Get rid of DST and make the official work day 7-4 instead of 8-5. Doesn't that make more sense?
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GoblinJuice, 3 Apr 2007 @ 8:18am

@#3 - No sane person wants war, but sometimes it is necessary. Don't worry, even if there was a draft... I doubt they'd be interested in you. Same goes for most of the self-described "anti-war" folks.

@#10 / Luke - If Franklin was president, he'd make Clinton look like a choirboy. ;-)

@#13 / Republican Gun - Nothing wrong with dressing like a factory worker! :-P

Oh, yeah, and... Fuck DST. Leave my goddamn clock alone!
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William, 3 Apr 2007 @ 8:20am

Energy conservation
This is a joke. This issue has nothing to do with politics. But can anyone tell my why, in this age of energy conservation, SUV's have suddenly become the top selling new vehicles. It's not only the politicians that are f-ing douche bags.
And don't tell me you need a Suburban to take your daughter to soccer practice. Whenever I see a Suburban with a W sticker on the back I just want to run my keys down the side of it. At some point after the election you're just being smug and you should have to pay for your vanity. And for destroying America and the environment.
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Wolfger, 3 Apr 2007 @ 8:20am

Re: DST
Did you ever notice how conservative people are usually happier, more positive and optimistic than liberal people?

Yeah... Ignorance is bliss.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Apr 2007 @ 8:24am

I was #3, and i love the fact that i started this political debacle. There's no mention of Ben Franklin in my comment, actually. I admire the man, and there will be no more like him.

The point of my comment, and i agree wholeheartedly that we are sheep, is that they ALL are idiots. This is supposed to be about saving money, and conserving energy. My point was that thr Republicans controlled the Congress, and the oval office at the said time this rediculous bill was passed. The point is, that even if we save an hour in the morning, or evening, you still turn lights on because its dark, and you are still using electricity. The sun still rises and sets, and we have no control.

BTW, I am on one computer writing this, the other tower is sitting there just for my networked drives, and my laptop is on standby just in case i feel like playing with it. I don't think the time change actually helped in this instance, cause guess what, I'd do this normally anyway.
I guess habits are hard to break, and people won't change, and we aren't saving a penny, huh. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it. AND I am pretty balanced between left and right, just for the benefit of giving you something else to bitch about.
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Mike, 3 Apr 2007 @ 8:34am

Completely Useless!
I would have liked if this would have been a national poll that US the Tax payers were able to have an opinion. While it being light to 7:30 might be great if you live in a warm part of the county, those who live in the north east still have snow in Late March April so big deal. I get to sit inside and watched the snow fall at 7:30 while the sun just starts to set. On the flip side I love waking up when it is still pitch black at 7 AM! I have been cutting it close to being late to work due to it feeling so much earlier. There should be a poll next year to see if this idiotic change was worth it. To Me! NOT AT ALL
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Mitch the Bitch, 3 Apr 2007 @ 8:39am

American Politicians THINK they are GODS and this once again proves it.

Time for a round up me tinks...
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Maxillarypun, 3 Apr 2007 @ 9:16am

My 2 Cents
It seems like so many article comments degenerate into political side bashing. In reality, politicians in general, whether they are Democrats, Republicans or otherwise serve their own interests. Much like the bulk of humanity, I might add. I'm not excusing myself, I'm just as selfish as the next guy. It seems that this country of ours would be better off with fewer politicians, who would create (hopefully) fewer stupid laws and bills. Most of the current laws are just talk and no real action to fix whatever issue they were supposed to fix.
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Lorraine, 3 Apr 2007 @ 10:14am

Love the extra light!
it didn't help energy savings.... but having it be light longer is WONDERFUL.

It means being able to do things after work earlier in the year.

No, probably not worth the cost in doing ... but as we have it .. I'm loving it.
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jon, 3 Apr 2007 @ 10:38am

more shopping?
How do you figure more shopping and so forth? If it's lighter out later, I'm more likely to be outside, not inside. If it were darker I'd be more likely to be inside...

Shopping tends to be done on the inside of buildings not the outside. Plus banks and other places that all close before I get home from work have not been affected by the hour extra of day light, I still can't go to those places no matter when the sun sets.

But I do agree, it's about time to be done with DST, we're moving away from agriculture and with new fangled farming equiptment with 100 high wattage landing lights on their new tank tracked super tractor, they'll be just fine when they go to plow or harvest. I'd rather have more light at night, vs the morning any day of the week!
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Pro, 3 Apr 2007 @ 10:48am

Human Nature
I used to laugh at my dad because he would set his clock 10 minutes in the future so that he had a better chance of being on time to work and other places. "But dad, just get up 10 minutes earlier. Plus don't you realize that it just gives you an extra 10 minutes to press snooze?"

Really though, someone made a great point - why doesn't everyone just go to work an hour earlier and come home an hour earlier? Especially given that lots of people can make their own hours these days.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Apr 2007 @ 11:39am

What? Nothing
C'mon. Essentially nothing.

3 weeks of additional hours of daylight in the evening without any chance in energy consumption ...

far from nothing.

I think the OP has a glass is half-empty approach to life.
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FireMonkey, 3 Apr 2007 @ 11:45am

Re: AZ & IN have it right
AZ & IN have it right. No DST.
But wait! Indiana now observes DST. Pay attention.
DST legislation is merely an attempt to make the shops open at more favorable hours so you'll spend more money.
Promoting economic activity is what this legislation is all about, and what's wrong with that? After all, that's one of the main purposes of Congress (to "regulate interstate commerce"). Doing anything that helps more businesses serve more customers is good for all of us - more sales tax is a good thing.

Don't like to shop? Fine. Don't. Go home and curl up in bed at 9:00, while the sun is still shining. No one will mind, least of all me. By 9:00 pm, I'm just teeing off at the 16th hole...
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billy, 3 Apr 2007 @ 11:58am

Agree with #26
I do, a lot.
Both sides do suck.
They really are all screwing all of us over.
It is like 1984. Doesn't really matter who is in control, as long as those with control keep it over those without.
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dorpass, 3 Apr 2007 @ 12:02pm

Re: DST
Eddie... you are plain dumb :)

Did you ever notice the statistics how DST causes billions of dollars of waste due to people being less efficient for several weeks after each time change? Leave it to partisan politics to ignore the financial ramifications and talk about birds chirping. Fiscal conservatives my butt. Why don't all Republicans admit that they won the game of who steals dumb ideas faster and call themselves Democrats too. So instead of two useless parties we can have one. Punks.
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Jimmerfish, 3 Apr 2007 @ 1:49pm

Re: Energy conservation
William@31:

Yes, the SUV proliferation is rather interesting, but people will buy what they want. Such is life. However, if gas prices were bad enough, I'm sure you'd see a few changes. Even @ $5/gal ($1.32/L) I think there will still be many holdouts.

I hope you realize that words mean things. Property damaging thugs, especially those that key vehicles, piss multitudes of people off. I don't care how you justify your feelings, there's no excuse for damaging someone else's vehicle or personal property because of a bloody sticker.

Gads, the last thing America needs right now is more personal-political revenge mongers. These are the type of attitudes and speech that are dividing the country. Whether you realize it or not, exacting your personal revenge against an individual in the name of vanity and the environment for what they drive and for whom they vote contributes to the very destruction you decry.

The solution is personal action. Lies and personal-political revenge do not become us.
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democrap morons, 4 Apr 2007 @ 11:34am

grow up.
bush bashers are the worst problem.

if the only thing you can do is bash, then leave.

if you have an (OMG) idea, then please make a suggestion.

otherwise, STFU.
you are all morons.
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Anonymous Coward, 5 Apr 2007 @ 2:07am

The sunshine
I'm all for the sun shining an hour later on my clock but what was really nice was all the extra money I made updating computer systems esp Exchange/Outlook based calendars to the new times.

Cha-ching!
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Anonymous Coward, 6 Apr 2007 @ 10:02am

Re: Only in the USA
move.
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True American, 28 Oct 2007 @ 7:22am

Re: Liberal Idiot
Shut up stupid!...you would rather have Hilary Clinton as our president and really watch the country go to hell in a handbasket.... Bush may not be a saint and he is messed up in his rich boy ethics...but he is way better than you Democrats...that is forsure!
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True American, 28 Oct 2007 @ 7:24am

Re: Re: Liberal Idiot
Sorry posted on wrong comment...this was meant for Anonynmous Coward.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Mar 2008 @ 12:23am

dalight saving time
there is no energy savings, electricity is used when you need it.
shopping hours are not extended, bussiness open and close on a schedule.
finally, how does changing the clock make the day longer than 24 hours?
THINK before who rant, you are only communicating your ignorance to everyone.
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