As of 2 a.m., we’re back on “standard” time, meaning clocks should be set back an hour. That means this is also the time of year for a spate of stories about whether daylight savings time makes sense. What time should I switch back my clocks?
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After Indiana adopted Daylight Saving Time statewide in 2006, researchers examined power usage statistics and found that electricity consumption there rose 1% overall, with a 2% to 4% increase in the fall months. That was the end of DST until WWII, when it came back into play, and then became permanent in 1966. For instance, Amtrak is required to keep their trains that run overnight on schedule.
“We had a wall full of clocks hanging on pegboard and he’d go up and down the ladder pretending to be setting them all on daylight saving time”, Jay Seiler, of Security Jewelers. However, farmers’ days have always been controlled by the sun, not the clock, so they have long resisted Daylight Saving Time, saying their productivity is actually reduced due to missing the extra hour of morning sunlight. I am a firefighter and a most important habit I recommend is that you change your smoke alarm batteries whenever theres a time change.
The clock changes can also raise the risk of accidents by sleep-deprived motorists.
Wake up and smell the time change!
While daylight saving time is not used by the majority of the world’s countries, its use is widespread in most European and North American countries.
Only 78 countries throughout the world observe daylight saving time.
Blue: Countries that now observe DST. However, through legislation passed in 2006, Daylight Saving Time now begins three weeks earlier on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November.
This year, Daylight Saving ended the morning following Halloween night, giving costumed guests an extra hour to enjoy festivities; Or an extra hour of horror movie binging.
A few areas of Canada are not using daylight saving time as well: Fort St. John, Charlie Lake, Taylor and Dawson Creek in British Columbia, Creston in the East Kootenays, and most of Saskatchewan.
Hawaii and Arizona don’t have to worry about the change as those two states are constantly on standard time in their respective time zones.
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Before Germany adopted daylight saving time, Englishman William Willett proposed it from 1908 through to 1911 and got rejected by parliament each time.
