We all experienced the end of Daylight Saving Time (DST) this past week, for most people it means getting an extra hour of sleep. As a parent, it does not mean this at all. It means your kid wakes up at their normal wake up time and you are wishing for that extra hour of sleep. Whether it is spring forward or fall back, both time changes are rough for parents. Which got me thinking, why do we even do this? My husband kept telling me because it saves energy, which I know is what we are told, but it didn’t add up to me. I didn’t understand how it was saving energy for commercial businesses since most places have their lights on no matter what time of day. I could see how it could save residential homes, but as an entire nation it didn’t seem like it would be much. I went on the hunt to find out how much energy it is actually saving us each year and the reason parents have to deal with these dreaded changes.
Turns out, it actually doesn’t save us energy. The short story is because of air conditioning, there are no savings in energy. There is a longer version too. Increased air conditioning usage over time has really impacted the energy savings of DST. There is also the factor of increased oil and gas consumption during DST. Since the days last until later in the evening, people are more likely to go out to an activity. This often means driving to that activity which increases our consumption of gas and energy. This is versus staying at home in the winter when it gets dark at 5pm. While the days naturally get shorter in the winter and longer in the summer, DST enhances this factor in the summer.
Parts of Indiana did not observe DST until 2006, meaning research could be done on how much energy those locations saved when the policy was instituted. After looking at electricity bills researchers found that “daylight time led to a 1 percent overall rise in residential electricity use, costing the state an extra $9 million”. That to me, shows that DST is not as effective as many claim. The only areas that DST actually saves energy is for areas that are not using air conditioning, which is a small portion of the U.S. 65% of Americans have central air conditioning and another 21 % have window units. This leaves only 14 % of Americans without air conditioning. We have central air but rarely use it, I also know I am in the minority on this. So again, why do we observe DST? Probably because we like habits and traditions.
Some sources are still claiming the benefits of DST, but I am not buying it and hope we stop this at some point. I don’t see DST being phased out anytime soon, but one can hope.
Image Source
