How Daylight Saving is a Waste of Time

Daylight saving was an idea conjured up by William Willett in 1905 as he noticed how residents of his home town London slept through the 'best part of the summer day' - the early morning, in his opinion. However, the concept was not introduced until World War One, when Germany and its allies adopted daylight saving in 1916 to save power during the nighttime.

Daylight saving doesn't actually save any daylight. All it does is steals light from the morning and shoves it in at night. The reason cited by many supporters of DST is that it 'saves power'. The study cited by the supporters is a U.S. Department of Transport study undertaken in 1975 examining the effect on power during the Arab oil embargo. The total power saved was a minute 1%.

The study is now out-of-date. Daylight saving may be a waste of time now, due to the widespread introduction of airconditioners. Because DST is implemented in summer, it is hotter during the 'extra hour' of daylight during the evening. People sleep through the 'heat' in the early morning, however they are wide awake during the evening. The simple solution to ridding the heat is to turn on the air-conditioner. What consumes more power, lightglobes or air-conditioners? Air conditioning can account for about half of a typical household or office's (yes, office) energy use, especially during the summer. Lighting only accounts for 4%. Even laundry accounts for 6%, so there is an energy wastage of 46%, 46c in every dollar.

Daylight saving supposedly delivers numerous health and safety benefits. In the same DOT study cited by the supporters in the energy argument, the Department found a 0.7% reduction in traffic fatalities (decreasing the total road deaths on U.S. roads from about 52,627 using a sample road death year to 52,259). However, the NBS (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology) reviewed the study and didn't find any difference in traffic fatalities.