Mar 08 2009
Spring Forward, Fall Back? Why?
Daylight saving time has me all screwed up! What is the reason that we change our clocks? Is it really necessary? According to Benjamin Franklin and William Willett it is…
Benjamin Franklin first suggested the idea in 1784 in an essay entitled “An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light.” It wasn’t until 1905 that William Willett, and English builder, apparently witnessed that many Londoners slept through a large part of the summer day. Willett believed that by changing the clocks, we would have increased opportunities for more outdoor leisure activities during the days closest to the summer solstice. He fought for this change until the day he died in 1915.
It wasn’t until 1916, when Germany and its allies, during WWI, agreed with this change, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t for “leisure activities”; time was changed to conserve resources during wartime. Daylight Saving Time was laid to rest after WWI, but brought back to life during WWII. After WWII, Daylight Saving Time was changed back to Standard Time and remain that way until 1966, however, many people were confused during this 20 year time period and Congress stepped and ended the confusion with “Spring forward…Fall back”. Hmmmm…I’m still confused!
It is argued, that one of the main reasons for Daylight Saving Time, is that it saves energy! As most of the electricity that we use in our home occurs during the evening hours, providing an extra hour of sunlight during this time gives us one hour less of extra electric consumption. While the amount of energy saved during that hour may seem small on a per household basis; globally, it’s huge!
Since this is a time for saving energy, make this a time for switching out your incandescent light bulbs to CFL’s, even if it is only a couple of them! Remember that for every light bulb that you switch out to a CFL, you save $30 a year on your utility bill!
Springing forward…
~Wind
photo credit: discovery education
I’m still confused as well. This is such a great post with such great information!
I think we should just stay on standard time and not go through time change twice a year.
It amazes me how for twenty some odd years the American public was still “confused” after Daylight Saving Time was omitted…seems almost surreal!
~Wind