Daylight Savings Time 2011

On the second Sunday of March, which will be the 13th, the Daylight Savings Time (DST) begins at 2:00 a.m. Now it’s time to turn all clocks ahead by one hour, sleep a little less and prepare yourself not to miss any appointments because of misinformation. This procedure is also know as Summer Time in some parts of the world.

Daylight Savings Time 2011

All this trouble is in order to make one extra daylight hour useful during spring, summer and most of fall. The logic is that we take one hour from the morning and “transfer” it to the evening. According to each country’s position around globe, there are different dates to start the saving time.

Countries closer to the tropics and the equator usually don’t take this measure because it barely makes a difference on how much light there is. Several researches have been made about how DST affects people’s routine and if it actually does save some electricity.

The U.S. Department of Transportation applied a poll on American citizens which proved that they like DST because “there is more light in the evenings / can do more in the evenings”. In 1976, New South Wales, in Australia, made a research with 2.7 million residents and the result was that 68% like DST.

Studies made about how DST saves energy, also by the Department of Transportation, in 1975 showed how about 1% of energy was preserved by each day. In New Zealand, the same study showed a decrease of 3,5%. These numbers can be related to how much light people use when they go to bed and night and when they wake up in the morning.