We did it.
Madison County survived the highly controversial debate over daylight-saving time. Now, nearly a year after it was initiated, it is happening again.
Just change your clock before you go to bed Saturday night. Spring forward. Add one more hour of daylight in your life by moving your clock from 2 a.m. to 3 a.m. (or earlier, depending on your bedtime routine).
This year we’re not just adding that hour to our lives, but 35 hours of daylight to our summer — which equals an extra day and a half. Daylight-saving time begins three weeks earlier than last year. It will also last one week longer in the fall, changing back to standard time on Nov. 11. Previous years (outside of our state), time has changed the first week of April and the last week of October. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 extends the hours of daylight to conserve energy. While the jury is still out on how much, it is true that with an hour more of daylight at night the need for electricity wanes down.
The savings appear not to be gigantic — maybe only 1 or 2 percent of the country’s total electrical consumption is saved. But in a country as big as the United States, a 1 percent reduction in electricity consumption is a lot of electricity, according to HowStuffWorks.com. The Department of Energy plans to study the electricity savings and report back to Congress on the effectiveness of changing the beginning and end dates.
The only true headache with daylight-saving time appears to be with computers, Blackberries, handheld planners and more. Many have been set to automatically switch on April 1. If you forget to change them, you may end up being an hour late to your destination. Local businesses should have been anticipating the change and made adjustments to their systems to accommodate their customers.
Other than those minor glitches, we’ll all survive again. Plus we’ll have that extra day and a half of time to spend with our friends and family enjoying summer.
Opinion
EDITORIAL: Adding hours of daylight conserves energy
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