Wall Street Journal | Daylight Saving Wastes Energy, Study SaysCan we now please leave the effing clocks alone?
Indiana's change of heart gave University of California-Santa Barbara economics professor Matthew Kotchen and Ph.D. student Laura Grant a unique way to see how the time shift affects energy use. Using more than seven million monthly meter readings from Duke Energy Corp., covering nearly all the households in southern Indiana for three years, they were able to compare energy consumption before and after counties began observing daylight-saving time. Readings from counties that had already adopted daylight-saving time provided a control group that helped them to adjust for changes in weather from one year to the next.
Their finding: Having the entire state switch to daylight-saving time each year, rather than stay on standard time, costs Indiana households an additional $8.6 million in electricity bills. They conclude that the reduced cost of lighting in afternoons during daylight-saving time is more than offset by the higher air-conditioning costs on hot afternoons and increased heating costs on cool mornings.
"I've never had a paper with such a clear and unambiguous finding as this," says Mr. Kotchen, who presented the paper at a National Bureau of Economic Research conference this month.
Monday, March 03, 2008
"No significant energy savings"
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5 comments:
I have always hated DST. It is an evil plot of the north to subject the southern states to too much daylight.
Take back the night!!
I thought you hated it because FDR has something to do with it. :)
RNB
I have hated DST all my life. Nothing's worse than wanting to settle down with a good book on a summer evening and getting told by your mother to go outside and get some fresh air since it's still daylight. Now I really [sarcasm alert]love[end] getting up at 6 a.m. in pitch darkness to drive to work since some yahoo in DC decided this was a good thing. Shouldn't we have the daylight in the morning when we need it rather than at night. Morning=light. Night=darkness. Get it? (Oh, wait, I forgot. I'm talking about politicians understanding this...)
DST: Republican Plot to Kill Children!
San Francisco Chronicle (3-13-07)
Editor — Between the spring equinox, March 21, and the autumnal equinox, Sept. 23, days are longer and nights are shorter. It makes sense to shift the “extra” morning daylight to the afternoon with daylight-saving time (DST).
But what about the daylight hours after Sept. 23? There is no extra daylight. DST sets our clocks for a later sunrise and darker mornings than standard time. Children have to walk to school as the rising sun is glaring into the eyes of sleepy commuters. Extending DST to well past September is dangerous.
In 2005, the then-Republican-controlled Congress extended DST until the first Sunday of November, putting the profits of the barbecue industry above the safety of our children.
Bruce Joffe, Piedmont
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/13/EDG2EOJS1M1.DTL
Everyone is aware that my middle initial is "S", right? :)
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