Are you for or against Daylight Savings?

Yes, but the evenings are still cooler... with a programmable thermostat, I spend very little on AC during the day (since I'm at work), then it kicks in a few minutes before I normally get home to get the house cool for me. It's then on the rest of the day. In the evening, however, it turns off as I open the windows. See, once the sun goes down, the temperature drops pretty significantly. All you need is a little breeze and a house can be perfectly comfortable with open windows and no AC at night. Of course, that doesn't really apply to southern states, where "cooler" may still be uncomfortably hot... but it's worked just fine in Ohio and Minnesota, the two places I've lived.

So, adding an hour of sunlight at the end of the day essentially adds an hour of AC usage to my bill every day during the summer. Sounds like some big energy savings there!

 

I will hate 9 am sunrise even more.

In the long run, permanent DST will simply cause people to readjust their activities and defeat the whole thing. Plenty of businesses already open at 9 or 10 am, well delayed from the start of business when I was young. Yearround DST, combined with westward timezone creep, will have more businesses not opening until the crack of noon.

Universal adoption of CFL (or better) lighting will save far more lighting energy than DST possibly could. Once that happens, shifting AC loads will probably make DST an energy loss.

 

AGAINST. When I think of the untold millions of dollars it costs, just so some hidebound people are able to call the time they start work "9:00am", I get depressed. Simple solution: 1) Everyone goes to UTC. Especially computers, and anyone or anything which moves. 2) If local communities want to have a local time, they can have whatever they want and publish an offset.

 

farmers need morning lite. what's more important than food? keep it lite during the farming season.

 

Um, you do realize DST has no impact on the amount of time the sun actually shines, don't you? A farmer has to wake up when the sun comes out, whether that time is 5:30 or 7:55.

Get rid of this anachronistic idea. And the Electoral College, too.

 

Funny, that's how it used to be. Makes perfect sense when you never leave your little village, but it plays havoc with railway schedules. Which is precisely why Standard Time was invented by Sir Sanford Fleming in 1879.

And in places with lots of farmers, like Saskatchewan, they don't bother with all this clock-changing foolery. Cows still gotta be milked first thing, don't matter what number the little hand's pointin' at. Even a rooster knows that.

 

but farmers have to deal with the rest of the world. they can't be up at the crack of dawn and be expected to be on a completely different schedule than everybody else.

 

The farmers I know follow daily and seasonal rhythms, with allowances for the type of crop and whatever animals they keep - it's 'the rest of the world' that tries to impose an arbitrary, regimented schedule.

YOU try tellin' Bessie "It ain't 9 o'clock yet, you'd best quit yer bitchin' "

My language is not intended to mock - farmers are generally very wise and practical people, worthy of respect. It's really a shame the whole industry's been taken over by megacorps and turned into factories.

 

Bra... farmers don't go by the clocks of the rest of the world... their universe IS within the fields they tend and the sun and moisture those fields can get to bring forth the bounty we get to enjoy post harvest...

The only time they really try to pay attention to the same clocks "we" do, is when they have to borrow coins for seed or new equipment.

 

well, i know some farmers. they have children in school, they go to the bank, they even go to the supermarket! they go to the mechanic, they need a plumber now and then. it's not as isolated as you may think.

 

I grew up on a farm, and still have relatives there.

My family went to the grocery store. The nearest thing that could be called a supermarket was more than an hour away.

During the harvest seasons, these trades run the same schedules as their customers, which can push 16/7 for a while.

 

I'm against it, but then I'm also against the concept of timezones all together. AM/PM too. Why can't we all just use a 24hr GMT clock and be done with it? No more mental math! If a place says they're open from 17:00 - 02:00, you know exactly when you can call them, etc. Who says a workday has to be from 9 - 5 anyway? It's time to let go of such antiquated notions.

 

Another reason to love daylight savings time. 70 degree F weather returns to NC, my mpg just shot up to 53 mpg (avg 48) on the way home this afternoon and still have daylight when I got home!!

 

i love it!!! ^

 

I agree, it's really for the safety of children getting to and from in daylight.

 

that's important. i wouldn't have wanted my children going or returning from school in the dark/dusk.

 

Make DST permanent I say!!

 

There's an interesting idea. Keep the circadian rhythms, but discard the concept of 'local time'? Yet another step toward globalisation.

 

the real problem is lack of daylight in winter. can't somebody do something about that?

 

What about the people who like experiencing four seasons? And if you think climate change is bad now, try 'fixing' Earth's tilt and see what mayhem ensues. You'll just have to move closer to the equator, bisco.