This Sunday (last Sunday in October) marks the end of daylight savings time. At 2am, we'll be setting our clocks back one hour so we can reclaim our useable daylight and get one hour of extra sleep! I didn't realize that the government's argument for Daylight Savings is energy conservation. News to me.
In the United States, daylight savings is observed in all states but Arizona and Hawaii. Arizona chooses not to observe it because the state is so hot that people will only run their air conditioning systems longer if daylight was optimized. Hawaii does not observe daylight savings because they experience very little variation in their winter and summer days (based on their latitude). Alaska is trying to get rid of it and Indiana just started observing it this year."Theoretically, the amount of residential electricity needed in the evening
hours is dependent both on when the sun sets and when people go to bed. Because
people tend to observe the same bedtime year-round, by artificially moving
sunset one hour later, the amount of energy used is theoretically reduced."
To make things even more complicated, daylight savings will start at a different time next year based on the passing of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Instead of starting on the first Sunday in April, it will start on the second Sunday in March. Instead of ending on the last Sunday of October, it will end on the first Sunday of November. That's 4 extra weeks of daylight savings. After 9 months of the daylight savings change, Congress has the right to revert back to the old Daylight Savings schedule if it demonstrates no savings in energy or is unpopular by the American public.
The Energy Policy Act also addresses Halloween trick-or-treating. By extending daylight savings, we would have one more hour of daylight trick-or-treating or one less hour of evening trick-or-treating. What to do?
Anyway, what time is it?
5 comments:
SHUT UP! i totally didn't know they were going to extend it this year! that is fabulous!
i wish it was year round. i hate leaving the office when it is dark. makes me want to go right home and go to bed. okay, who am i kidding... it's pretty much that way no matter what it looks like outside when i leave. =P~
great post, russ!
Just remember that the extended daylight savings doesn't happen until next year in 07.
Don't forget to set your clocks back on Sunday!
i'm counting on the extra hour sunday. we're making a run to the grand canyon to do some hiking on saturday and i'm going to need all the sleepy time i can get saturday night...
i hear being emergency air-lifted out can really take it out of you. =P~
Lala-- As Russell mentions, Arizona doesn't do Daylight Savings Time, so you won't get that extra hour Saturday night into Sunday morning while at the Grand Canyon, but instead, will get it when you return back to the Pacific timezone.
wow, such little faith in the blonde. thanks for the help everyone! but i did manage to process everything all by myself. my bad for not replying in more concrete terms.
by "this year", i meant the year to come. also, i actually lived in arizona for a year, so i understood when that extra hour was going to kick in. my sleepy time comment was more related to traffic patterns.
but i appreciate all the help. good to know so many people are watching out for my understanding of daylight savings. ;)
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