Daylight Savings Time: Debating The Costs Of Springing Forward

This weekend, most Americans will lose an hour of sleep as the nation shifts to daylight saving time, which starts Sunday morning at 2 a.m.

But it could be the most expensive hour of the year. One economist has estimated the cost of shifting that hour forward due to daylight saving time is $1.7 billion dollars a year. That represents just under $3 per American in lost productivity due to clock resetting.

Originally, the time-shifting policy was designed to help save with energy costs and help Americans maximize sunlight hours back when electricity costs were relatively far higher. But today, some economists say the policy is not really helping all that much.

Two states--Arizona and Hawaii--along with American Samoa, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands don’t officially observe the time change each year.

One study showed that the time shift did not reduce energy consumption, so much as displace where and when it was being used. For example, fewer people may need to turn their lights on in the morning when they wake up due to an earlier sunrise, but more people are using air conditioners later in the day as it gets warmer, according to research published by the National Bureau of Economic Research in 2008.

Other studies and reports point to the various problems with losing an hour: There are slightly more traffic accidents on the Monday after the spring forward; people struggle with sleeping schedules; and some television ratings go down.

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Do you save money on your electric bill during daylight saving time?

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No

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Comments

[Virginia Beringer]

04:56 PM on 03/11/2012

"One study showed that the time shift did not reduce energy consumption, so much as displace where and when it was being used." Hahahaha the energy is being used at the same "time" it's just the stupid CLOCK that's different!!

[themacway]

06:55 AM on 03/11/2012

it's bush's fault.

[den246n]

06:35 AM on 03/11/2012

Time to eliminate daylight savings time, as I have said for years! I also read that perhaps it costs many accidents every year, as people have to adjust to the "new" time.

[wntmoretime]

04:28 AM on 03/11/2012

get rid of daylight savings time

[sfisher951]

03:45 AM on 03/11/2012

What a stupid poll question - how would anyone really know if they saved money on their electric costs? Most of us have never lived without it!

[TheStreak]

11:09 PM on 03/10/2012

I never HAVE been able to figure out how they decided DST would save energy. Big sSouprise. It doesn't. So NOW can we leave the time where it belongs?

[Leon Engelun]

09:17 PM on 03/10/2012

That represents just under $3 per American in lost productivity due to clock resetting.
Yeah right. It don't cost $3 to change the clock. This is stupid. As for losing sleep? Go to bed. What is the problem?

[den246n]

06:40 AM on 03/11/2012

The problem is looking at the issue nationwide - many older classic wind-up clocks do not like having their time reset, normally on these clocks you would just move the hands a bit to make the time faster/slower, and not have to adjust for a whole hour. Also, think of all the clocks that have to be reset each time, all of the timers for store lights, household timers, etc - someone pays the cost for this, and it is the consumer. I know I used to have an 85 Chrysler New Yorker, the trip computer buttons were hard to work, a pain in the butt every 6 months to deal with daylight savings time - again.
Plus, studies have shown that people's clocks seem to get messed up - a lot more accidents as people have to get used to the "new time" and are unusually tired. And for losing sleep? I am in a job where my schedule changes from early mornings to closing a store - I lose a lot of time because I am exhausted, but have trouble getting to sleep between shifts. For many, it is not a matter of going to bed, it is getting to sleep. I feel I lose a lot of time because I feel like crap when I need to be awake.

[cnb481]

09:14 PM on 03/10/2012

DST puts Indiana 2 hours out of sync with the celestial position of the sun because politicians put Indiana in the wrong time zone

[ohwhen]

08:01 PM on 03/10/2012

Springing forward AND falling back both suck when you're the parent of Small Children.


It's gonna be a rough couple of weeks adjusting.

[rdschuler]

07:05 PM on 03/10/2012

I'm over 80 years old and DST has been in effect since WW 2 to conserve energy,and every year since then, talk about change comes and goes .Most electronics have automatic time changes stored,so the government would have to give at least 10 years planning for the change .

[Itsmyland2]

06:49 PM on 03/10/2012

Not going to respond to a question following such a poorly written article. The article states "fewer people may need to turn their lights on in the morning when they wake up due to an earlier sunrise"

Since we must set the clocks forward 1 hour tonight, the sun will rise an hour LATER, not earlier.

DST is and always has been a bad idea. If we must not accept the time then lets set the clock forward by 30 minutes and just leave it there all year.

[TheRichcraft]

07:55 PM on 03/10/2012

Amen. That's the best idea I've ever heard. This gaining/losing an hour's sleep is just ridiculous.

[K Brow]

09:51 PM on 03/10/2012

my air-conditioning comes on when it gets hot not because it is 3 in the afternoon and it stays on until it cools off doesn't matter what time it is.

[psridgell]

05:40 PM on 03/10/2012

Well known fact that daylight savings time kills more children walking to school in the dark, report that !

[hislonv]

05:39 PM on 03/10/2012

That poll is worthless. In the winter we heat homes and in the summer we cool them. We know nothing other than using or not using DST so how can we say one way or the other.
Bottom line is that we are inside in heated homes during the winter using lights and other things. Many of us wake up in the dark and get home from work in the dark. In the summer we cool our homes, but we also wake up in the light (or closer to it) and get home in the light so we can go outside and not need to use lights to see as we enjoy the warmer weather. If we didn't have DST then we would spend more time sleeping in the morning daylight and using more lights at night in the evening.
Back in the 70's they tried staying on DST. It backfired. Parents had to drive their kids to school in the dark in many parts of the country. The very reason they were staying on it was exactly opposite of what happened. We didn't save any gas for our cars during the gas crisis.

[lletraw]

04:51 PM on 03/10/2012

They must have had quite a debate over this in Newfoundland, Canada, with the opposing sides unable to agree. That province is one half hour later than neighboring Nova Scotia and Labrador! I kid you not!

[Mr Factoid]

12:32 PM on 03/10/2012

Ben Franklin never proposed a daylight saving time, i.e., moving the clocks forward in the summer.

In his satirical article to the Journal of Paris, he proposed a scheme how we could gain more daylight, and thus save on the cost of candles: waking up earlier.

Of course, he realized that "people are apt to be obstinately attached to old customs, and that it will be difficult to induce them to rise before noon, consequently my discovery can be of little use."

But wrote that this resistance could be overcome by:

1. "a tax be laid of a louis per window, on every window that is provided with shutters to keep out the light of the sun."

2. letting "guards be placed in the shops of the wax and tallow chandlers, and no family be permitted to be supplied with more than one pound of candles per week."

3. letting "guards also be posted to stop all the coaches that would pass the streets after sunset, except those of physicians, surgeons, and midwives."

And that still didn't work, then

4. "every morning, as soon as the sun rises, let all the bells in every church be set ringing; and if that is not sufficient?, let cannon be fired in every street, to wake the sluggards.

He whole scheme was not moving clocks forward, but making people wake up earlier.