I think Daylight Savings Time should be reversed.

[aimeeandbeatles]

It always confused me why it was in the summer. Here are various reasons:
In the winter, it gets dark earlier. So if the clock is set back, it would get dark very early. As well it would make it colder so people would turn up the heat (if you have the sun coming in your window the inside is warmer) and that wastes energy.
In the summer, when the sun is up, it is warm. So more people would be likely to turn on the air-conditioner, wasting energy. As well the summer the sun sets later.
So for that reason, I always thought it would work to reverse them. So in the winter you would get an extra hour of daylight. Does anybody want to discuss this?

 

[RedRalph]

I think it's to do with farmers and kids walking to school

 

[galdre]

we should get rid of daylight savings time - it makes no sense

 

[EnglishCrusader]

we should get rid of daylight savings time - it makes no sense

Funny thing actually, I just researched about it today

 

[Wolfbeckett]

I think daylight savings time should be abandoned completely in this country (do other countries do this? I don't know), forget reversed. The tiny percentage of Americans that still get some use out of it can feel free to adjust their own sleep cycle up and down on their whim. For the rest of us who get nothing out of it aside from an unbalanced biorhythm, get rid of it, it serves no useful purpose in 2011.

 

[madviking]

I think it's to do with farmers and kids walking to school

In essence, having sunrise and sunset at reasonable hours.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I didn't think of the farming thing. In the summer is when everything is growing right? So it would need a lot of sun.

 

[LucyDuke]

Don't reverse it, abolish it.

Er, there's the same amount of sun whether DST is in effect or not. It's just when sunrise and sunset happen relative to the clock.

 

[RedRalph]

I didn't think of the farming thing. In the summer is when everything is growing right? So it would need a lot of sun.

it doesn't change the amount of sunlight, it changes when farmers have to get up, etc.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

it doesn't change the amount of sunlight, it changes when farmers have to get up, etc.

Which they are quite capable of changing on their own without having to force everyone else in line with it. Farmers can just start waking up one hour earlier or later at different times of the year, whenever they think it's appropriate to do so, it doesn't need to be mandated for all, especially in a modernized society where farmers are a tiny percentage of the population.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Sometimes I'm not very bright

 

[LucyDuke]

It's okay, Aimee. It's not just you. DST is stupid and confusing and useless and that's why it should be abolished.

 

[emzie]

I think it's to do with farmers and kids walking to school

No, it's to do with a New Zealand entomologist wanting more time to look for insects. Seriously.

 

[IglooDame]

It's okay, Aimee. It's not just you. DST is stupid and confusing and useless and that's why it should be abolished.

What's worse than leaving DST the way it is? Changing the dates for its adjustment a few weeks one way or the other to create all sorts of headaches for transborder network systems which need to have their OSes/software adjusted for the new times. .

 

[LucyDuke]

Well yeah. If we just abolished it then there wouldn't be any changing of dates.

 

[BvBPL]

Today the sun rose at 5:16 am for me and will set at 8:27 pm. If DST were abolished, the sun would have risen at 4:16 am and set at 7:27 pm; civil twilight would have started at about 3:46 am. That would be totally unacceptable.

Please think of those of us who have east-facing bedroom windows before you propose such an idea.

 

[JollyRoger]

We need a Daylight Spendings Time.

 

[_random_]

Don't reverse it, abolish it.

Er, there's the same amount of sun whether DST is in effect or not. It's just when sunrise and sunset happen relative to the clock.

Hear, hear!

We need a Daylight Spendings Time.

Damnit, Jolly, you can't be stealing one-liners from the Family Circus.

 

[JollyRoger]

Damnit, Jolly, you can't be stealing one-liners from the Family Circus.

You've discovered my dirty little secret of where I get most of them.

 

[Earthling]

Today the sun rose at 5:16 am for me and will set at 8:27 pm. If DST were abolished, the sun would have risen at 4:16 am and set at 7:27 pm; civil twilight would have started at about 3:46 am. That would be totally unacceptable.

Please think of those of us who have east-facing bedroom windows before you propose such an idea.

Well it could be the other way though, in fact that's what I'd prefer if DST was abolished, the summer stays the same way it is, and in the winter we have sunset at 6 PM instead of 5 PM and sunrise at like 8 instead of 7 AM. If you're far enough north that you get wide variation in daylight anyway you're going to end up having weird sounding times on the clock sometime no matter what.