Skip to footer

Daylight saving time ends: Does it save energy?

Daylight saving time ends Sunday in most states. But does daylight saving time actually save energy?

|
(AP Photo)
Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany is shown in 1911 at an unknown location. The emperor of Germany was the first to implement daylight savings time.

For most of us, the end of daylight saving time on Sunday, Nov. 3, (officially at 2 a.m.), means we get another hour of sleep, and an earlier sunrise.

Both are welcome.

But lately, the true raison d'etre of daylight saving time has been called into question: saving energy.

Benjamin Franklin ("early to bed, early to rise") is created with coming up with the idea of daylight saving time.  But Kaiser Wilhelm II, Emperor of Germany, during World War I was the first to act on Franklin's idea, according to David Prerau, author of "Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time."

Not wanting to be outdone by the Germans, the British and Americans also adopted the practice to save energy during World War I, and later again in World War II. Since WW II, daylight saving has been optional among US states. In fact, Arizona, Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Marianas, and the Virgin Islands don't observe DST.

Prerau notes that US Department of Transportation studies have shown that daylight saving time also reduces accidents, saving about 25 lives a year, and reduces crime.

But does daylight saving time really save energy?

Studies show mixed results. For example, The Christian Science Monitor reports that in Indiana, daylight saving time caused a 1 percent jump in electricity, according to a 2010 study. The energy saved from reduced lighting in the summer months was canceled out by an increase in the use of heating and air conditioning, the researchers from Yale University and University of California Santa Barbara said.

Most advocates cite a 2008 report to Congress by the Department of Energy which showed that total electricity savings from the extended daylight saving period amounted to 1.3 terawatt-hours, or 0.03 percent of electricity consumption over the year.  That's a tiny number. But if electricity costs 10 cents per kilowatt, that means an estimated $130 million in savings each year. In 2011, the US consumed 3,856 billion kilowatthours (kWh), according to the US Energy Information Administration.

Since energy consumption is relative to outside temperatures, the benefits of daylight saving time are more pronounced in mild climates. The DOE study, for example, estimated that DST saves California about 1 percent of its energy bill daily.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Daylight saving time ends: Does it save energy?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2013/1030/Daylight-saving-time-ends-Does-it-save-energy
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe