Daylight Saving Time just ended—along with energy savings. Photo: Jim Nix/Nomadic Pursuits.

In the wee hours of Sunday morning, the little hand on the clock ticked backwards one hour and Daylight Saving Time ended. Now we’re on Standard Time, which will last for about 4 months, until we click forward to Daylight Saving Time again in March. Daylight Saving Time (DST) started in Europe during WWI, to save energy, and has been used consistently in the US since 1966. DST was temporarily extended in 1974 and 1975, to save energy during the Arab Oil Embargo. It was extended in 1986 and again in 2007—DST now begins earlier in the spring and ends later in the fall than ever before.

When we turn the clock forward in the spring, we move an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening. The idea is that we save energy in the evenings, because we don’t need to turn our lights on for an extra hour. A 2008 report to Congress quantified the amount of energy saved after the 3-week extension of DST that began in 2007: 1.3 Tera Watt-hours, a decrease of 0.03% of the country’s annual energy usage. The amount of energy saved depends on where you live. You might actually use MORE energy during DST, if you need to run your heater on a cold, dark morning or if you come home at the end of a workday to a hot, stuffy house and need to run your air conditioner.

And that extra hour of daylight impacts more than just the energy bill, as reviewed in an article in National Geographic Daily News. People tend to be more active outdoors during DST. This is beneficial for tourism. Plus, crime rates drop because crime tends to happen in darkness. There are fewer traffic accidents because people aren’t driving home from work in the dark. And there are effects on human health: there is evidence that springing forward is linked with increased risk of heart attacks.

There are places in the world that don’t observe Daylight Saving Time; their inhabitants don’t have to deal with the bi-annual adjustment of their internal clocks. In areas close to the equator, day length remains relatively consistent throughout the year; there is not much daylight to save. Many tropical lands don’t observe DST, including Hawaii. (Neither do parts of Arizona—don’t ask me why). Russia observes DST year round, and in the summer turns its clock forward an hour anyway—Double DST. In 2001, in the wake of rolling blackouts, California requested to observe Daylight Saving Time year round, and observe double DST during the summer. This report details small but measurable energy savings, but the request was never approved.

Turning clocks back and forth doesn’t make the airlines happy, as they try to schedule international connecting flights that originate in one time zone and end in another, which may or may not be observing DST, depending on the day of the year. The whole idea of a standard time, at least in the US, began with the advent of the railroad. Before that, towns set their own time.

When I was a kid, I went to summer camp in New Brunswick, pretty far north, where summertime sunsets occur around 9:00. We would have “camp time”—we’d turn the clock back, so it would seem to get dark earlier in the evening. We could sing camp songs and cook bannock around a campfire, and still be in our bunks by 10. Time, I guess, is relative.

You may listen to the "Server Farms Radio report online, as well as find additional links and resources.

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We may have to slow down our too-often
fast paced and frenetic lifestyles—a blessing in
disguise?
That's the question asked of a group of scientists, sociologists, others, and myself who gathered at the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) Summer Study in 2006. (ACEEE has really great resources for consumers on its Web site, including energy efficiency ratings for cars and appliances.) The Summer Study is on my mind because every two years ACEEE hires Home Energy to come down to Asilomar State Beach and Conference Center in Pacific Grove, California to publish a daily newsletter at the meetings. I know, a tough assignment!

Besides traditional presentations and discussion, the last Summer Study on residential energy use had groups competing to heat water above 1400F using a pop bottle, some bubble wrap, aluminum foil, a test tube, and the partial sunshine of the Pacific Coast. And, as I described in my introduction, the Summer Study gathers experts in many fields to look to the future and try to imagine what life will be like when fossil fuels begin to run out. Many people (including me) think we have reached worldwide peak oil, and the downward trend in oil production will bring higher and higher prices at the pump, for heating oil, and for many things we use every day that are either made from fossil fuels or are transported to us using fossil fuels.

When gasoline hits $15 per gallon, I think we will all be driving less. As transportation costs rise higher and higher, I think we will be forced to buy food grown locally and products made locally. It will still make sense to import some things from other states and other countries, but that will be increasingly rare. And I don't think we'll be building big houses in the suburbs and exurbs much. It will cost too much to heat, cool, and power a 4,000 to 5,000 square foot house and also commute 100 miles a day to work, even if the driver makes good money.

While a few religious people will wait and hope for the end of the world, I think many more will look to their local faith communities, as well as their families and friends, for mutual support as energy and other resources become scarce and fear towards the future increases. (Didn't churches invent the food bank?) I'm not sure that we'll all be living in communes, but there will be more groups living in large homes, and more people living in apartments, condominiums, or small single-family homes in or near cities.

Buses, subways, trains, and other forms of mass transportation will become much more popular, and large SUVs driven to the grocery store and soccer practices will become rare. I also predict… that hand cranks for windows, like I have on my 1997 Geo Prizm, will make a comeback! It will be harder to get parts for our complicated, automated machines and home appliances, and simple, tried and true technology will be in.

What do you think life will be like when gasoline costs $15 per gallon?

Jim Gunshinan is Managing Editor of Home Energy Magazine. He holds an M.S. in Bioengineering from Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania, and a Master of Divinity (MDiv) degree from University of Notre Dame.

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What does this have to do with energy conservation? Read on.

Every old TV will be new again–for about $10.
Photo credit: Human Productivity Lab,
licensed through Creative Commons.When I was still new to the Bay Area, I lived in a one-room apartment near the Gourmet Ghetto in Berkeley. I was working at Black Oak Books and spent many a late night after work winding down by watching reruns of NewsRadio, about the best TV comedy series to come along in the 1990s. I miss Bill McNeal, the character played by the late comedian Phil Hartman. And I had a big crush on the Lisa Miller character, played by ER's Maura Tierney. Now that I have cable, I can watch 3 PBS stations and the Discovery Channel, but back in the day, if I nailed my rabbit ear antenna high up on the wall and turned it just right, I could get NewsRadio, a lifesaver.

If you still have one of those old rabbit ear antennas, or have one on your roof, hold on to it.

As of February 17, 2009, when all the major TV broadcasters will begin to transmit using a digital signal, no one with an analog, rabbit-eared television set will be able to get anything without a digital-to-analog converter box. If you have a digital TV, or pay for cable or satellite TV service, you're good– you don't have to do anything. But if you have an old analog set, you'll need to buy a converter box costing about $50.

But don't fret, because your government has come to the rescue-with coupons worth $40.

Between January 1, 2008, and March 31, 2009, all U.S. households will be able to request up to two coupons, worth $40 each, for the purchase of eligible digital-to-analog converter boxes. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is administering the coupon program, and has a list of eligible converter boxes as well as information about getting coupons.

The entry of perhaps millions of digital-to-analog TV converters could add yet another widely used electronic device to strain the U.S. power grid, add to carbon emissions, increase our dependence on foreign sources of fossil fuels, and so on-you know the drill. But thanks to the efforts of folks at the Natural Resources Defense Council, the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, and other energy efficiency advocates, those converter boxes will run on as little energy as possible, especially during the 20 or so hours a day when no one is watching TV. The Department of Commerce has issued a ruling that eligible devices can use no more than two watts while in "sleep" mode, and that the devices will automatically go into sleep mode after four hours of inactivity. The four-hour delay will be set as the default mode at the factory, but users can adjust the delay time at home or disable the automatic switching to sleep mode.

So don't throw away your old TV sets. You'll be able to use them after February 17, 2009, but it will cost you about $10, plus the free coupon from the feds. And you'll probably be burning a lot less electricity with your old TV and converter box than with one of those new monster plasma screen TVs.

Jim Gunshinan is Managing Editor of Home Energy Magazine. He holds an M.S. in Bioengineering from Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania, and a Master of Divinity (MDiv) degree from University of Notre Dame.