Daylight Saving Time: How Much Energy Does It Really Save?

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I live in Texas and it gets hot in summer. You get home from work and it's too hot to do much of anything outside. Then comes fall and gets cooler but enter DST. you get home, go outside to do something and it's getting dark. You've been putting off some jobs all summer so you string lights all over the place. People inside are turning on lights all through the house and are gonna burn them for hours.
I can see dst being of some use in the 20's & 30's when folks went to work an hour after dark.

Jay of TX 2:20PM August 13, 2011

Certainly, the Federal Gov't knows exactly how many KW of electricity were used before the DST extension in 2007 and how much after the extension. I don't care what "many believe", just give the amount of electricity used, not dollars spent or what people theorize.

CT of MN 10:45AM March 13, 2011

I think it depends more where you are geographically in your time zone -East to Western portion and Northern or Southern. I lived in Boston - Far North and Far East of the Eastern Time zone. Sunrise was at 4:30am and sunset at around 9pm at the very height of summer and then dwindle. Lots of sun, we gained 5-6 hours in the summer of sun between winter and summer. I moved to Houston, West and South in the Central time zone. The daylight difference between summer and winter is no more than 2 hours. So you get up and it is actually dark at 7am in the end of the summer and you go to work and forget to shut your lights off before you go. No savings.

jennie of TX 9:15AM October 09, 2010

Even as a kid I knew this was a crock. Most peoples households have someone up between the hours of 5 AM to 11 PM or later. I don't think it saves energy at all. In our household, I rise between 3:30 AM and 4:00 AM to workout before my husband leaves for work. I must be home to tend to children. I go to bed between 8 and 9 PM. This is very difficult in the summer when everyone is out playing still. He goes to bed after midnight and wakes between 6 AM and 7 AM depending on work. Anyhow, you can see that we will have the lights on just as many hours of the day. I know a lot of households that also have the same sort of schedule. Most people don't sleep the 8 hours that we are supposed to, but more like 6. Household schedules tend to be staggered amongst members. Also, we have natural energy savings as we have more light in the summer to begin with. So how much do we really save above that. I think it is quite absurd that we continue this ritual year after year.
It really messes me up for weeks. I feel sluggish and tired. I need consistency. When DST starts, I've also heard there is an upswing in car accidents. The insurance companies should lobby for keeping standard time, to save themselves money. :)
Anyone with a sleep disorder will tell you this is a really bad thing for them. They work very hard to maintain their schedules. Then they have to change for work obligations, etc.
I really don't think the consequences of DST outweigh the possible if not non-existant benefits. Lets work on real energy savings, not fake savings. There have to be more creative and more beneficial ways to save energy. How much could we save if everyone switched to LED lighting? What about, instead of tax credits for turning in your old car, we have them for trading in your old refridgerator. You get the idea, the savings from this would probably far outweigh savings from changing the time twice a year.

KL of OR 1:19AM March 15, 2010

xSrGZW

Mswdwvii of RI 5:05AM July 15, 2009

D0 you not like it light out longer in the summer? whats the big deal it takes a day or two and your back on the right schedule. How again would affect air conditioning? Im pretty sure it has nothing to do with temperature. Youd still be running you AC for the same amount of time. It saves energy, even if its only a little. Why not do it?

Mike of VT 10:00AM March 12, 2009

It's all fine and good to do a study on energy savings. But what about a study on all of the lost person-hours dealing with the time change itself. Resetting clocks, etc. When they changed the day of the year DST fell on a couple years back, tons of time went into reprogramming computers and other devices that were set to change on the old date. Then when not everyone did it properly, countless reports got thrown off requiring countless man hours in figuring out what happened. Also, what about poor BLASTO above who has to get up an hour early. Human beings have very real internal clocks. He might be more tired at work 2/3 of the year and lose productivity. How about a study on that?

Miles of CA 5:14PM March 09, 2009

DST may reduce the need for lighting but it also increases the need for air conditioning. How come no one looks at that? I don't know how the Dept of Energy could come up with those results when A/C uses a lot more energy than light bulbs.

Janet of NJ 2:32PM March 08, 2009

I guess they think swapping dollars is making money also. Everyone I know hates daylight wasting time.

Frank Hines of TX 8:28AM March 08, 2009

Since 2007 we've got 8 months of DST and 4 months of standard time. It was bad enough before, but now the man's got me getting up an hour early 2 out of 3 days a year.

blasto of TN 7:20AM March 08, 2009