In the Agora: Evening Power Usage Time

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April 03, 2007

Evening Power Usage Time

The early onset of Daylight Savings Time in the United States this year may have been for naught.

The move to turn the clocks forward by an hour on March 11 rather than the usual early April date was mandated by the U.S. government as an energy-saving effort.

But other than forcing millions of drowsy American workers and school children into the dark, wintry weather three weeks early, the move appears to have had little impact on power usage.

"We haven't seen any measurable impact," said Jason Cuevas, spokesman for Southern Co., one of the nation's largest power companies, echoing comments from several large utilities.

That may come as no surprise to the Energy Department, which last year predicted only modest energy savings because the benefits of the later daylight hour would be offset.

For example, households may draw less electricity for lights at night, but will use more power early in the day as they wake to darker and chillier mornings.

Residential lighting comprises only about 10 percent of the average homeowner's electricity use, while air conditioners, heaters and refrigerators consume much more power. Washers, dryers and plasma televisions are also bigger users of electricity than lighting . . .

Perhaps the biggest impact was felt by the computer users and Blackberry addicts who had to scramble for software patches to keep their digital devices on the right time.

[Emphasis added]

Thankfully, this idiotic piece of legislation contains a provision for Congress to revert to a "normal" DST schedule based upon a Department of Energy study of the impact, which isn't likely to be positive. Sadly, I doubt any Congressman, including the sponsors of the extended DST, Ed Markey (D-MA) and Fred Upton (R-MI), will learn that good intentions (and complete disregard for evidence) don't make for good legislation.

Now, how about a provision allowing for the abolition of any DST based upon a full study of its impacts?

Previously by the author:

"Morning Darkness Saving Time"
"A Bad Plan for Indiana"
"DST and Broken Hearts"
"No, This is NOT Happening"
"Grrrrr"

Posted by Zach Wendling at April 3, 2007 01:43 PM

Comments

Reverting to the 2006 DST schedule may save people from some darker, colder mornings, but it would also cause a fresh round of computer snafus. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Posted by: Eric Seymour at April 3, 2007 03:25 PM | permalink

I'm getting worried about how we are going to deal with leap seconds in the future. Will the earth year slowly lose sync with a solar year?

Posted by: Dave S. at April 4, 2007 12:45 AM | permalink

I'm getting worried about how we are going to deal with leap seconds in the future. Will the earth year slowly lose sync with a solar year?

No, the group that runs the atomic clocks adjusts for leap seconds.

Posted by: Foltz at April 4, 2007 02:27 AM | permalink

There was a proposal to stop adjusting atomic clocks for leap seconds, essentially because there's no need to keep the earth year and solar year correlated now that we have atomic clocks.

The only problem is that would make celestial navigation impossible. "So what"? We might ask, since we now have GPS. Two groups stepped forward to oppose the change: yachtsmen and the US Navy. The Navy still considers learning to use a sextant a key tradition in officer training, as well as a backup if China shoots down our satellites. The yachtsmen still navigate by the stars because it's fun.

Posted by: John M. at April 4, 2007 09:54 AM | permalink

April 03, 2007

Evening Power Usage Time

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