All Your Green Blog

As the name implies "Daylight Savings Time" was originally instituted to save energy. A department of transportation study in 1975 claimed that implementation of DST reduced energy demand by 1% in March and April. However the National Burro of Standards refuted that study only a year later. Regardless, most of the US switched to DST and we've even extended it to start earlier and end later.

One of the most recent states to switch over was Indiana in 2006. Indiana's switch provided University of California-Santa Barbara economics professor Matthew Kotchen and Ph.D. student Laura Grant, a chance to actually measure the effects of DST on energy usage.

They recorded energy usage for three years during the transition. Taking data from 7 million meter readings, and using counties that had already made the switch for a control group, they concluded that instead of saving money and electricity the residents of Indiana actually spent $8.6 million more on their electricity bills. That cost came from a 1-4% increase in power usage.

Finally my hate for Daylight Savings Time is vindicated! No longer is it only an annoying shift of time that takes me weeks to get used to, but it is also a waste of energy. I should note that this study was specific to Indiana and doesn't necessarily translate to whatever state you live in. However the 70s report that claimed energy savings, occurred before Central Air became as wildly used as it is today, and increased AC usage was specifically sited by the more recent study as a reason for increased energy usage due to DST.

My estimate is that life would be similar and greener if we switched back standard time and stopped messing with our clocks.