Daylight Savings Time is One Big Crock
March 8, 2008 |
I’ve vented about the whole “Spring Forward and Fall Back” thing before and while my position stated nearly five years ago still stands, I have found yet another reason to question, no, ponder over the whole thing.
Evidently some pretty smart people at UC Santa Barbara decided to study Indiana’s adoption of Daylight Savings Time and compare their energy consumption before and after the change. The results, thanks to Gizmodo, are rather interesting:
The results of the study say that while lightbulbs are used less because of the added daylight, air-conditioning in the summer and heating in the fall are used more than they would with an hour less daylight. Overall, the cost to Indiana residents was around $8.6 million a year in higher energy bills, plus up to $5.3 million per year in “increased pollution costs.”
Ok. Let me get this straight. Daylight Savings Time increased energy costs by $8.6 million… in Indiana? Imagine what it costs somewhere that really matters, like New York or… gasp, California! You see, a few years back when the government moved Daylight’s Savings Time up a week and extended it another three weeks the idea was that more sunlight during the day would mean less energy consumption. Well, oops.