Daylight Savings Time - Fall Back

[JohnH]

My wife and I are having a disagreement over which of us should get up at 2:00 am and set all the clocks back an hour.  Any suggestions on how to resolve this dilemma?

[kcjenkins]

Flip a coin is safest, if you let her do the flipping and let her call it, and don't ask to see !   Assuming you like sharing a bed with her, of course.  ;~) 

[rfassett]

Do the right thing. You set the alarm and put it on her side of the bed. That way you have done your part.

OR -------- as you are well aware by now, marriage is all about compromise and sharing. Both of you get up and split the chore equally.  Here is a perfect example of that. Today my wife went out and picked up all of the limbs that have fallen on our property due to the recent heavy winds. And I watched football.

 

 

 

[jklcpa]

Or set the clocks back, go to bed and don't worry about the clocks. The time will be correct when you get up tomorrow.  I stay up late enough that I'll be adjusting the time before going to bed.

[Jack from Ohio]

I have 2 clocks that are very difficult to reach that stay on EST all year round. 

[Catherine]

I have a friend who sets his watch to Greenwich time and adjusts mentally from there.  As far as he is concerned, the world around him changes *its* schedule....  he has a point.

[Jack from Ohio]

I have a friend who sets his watch to Greenwich time and adjusts mentally from there.  As far as he is concerned, the world around him changes *its* schedule....  he has a point.

Zulu -4

[GeneInAlabama]

I have a cousin that resets his clocks 2 or 3 days ahead of time.  He is never late for anything.

[JohnH]

I did hear one neighbor say that she is glad we are back to "normal" time. 

Seems that during the months the clocks are set ahead, the extra hour of daylight is killing her roses.

Edited November 2, 2015 by JohnH

[ILLMAS]

I have friends that have every minute of their life planned out, talk about having all the time in the world

[Eric]

I changed the clocks and stayed up an extra hour.  My kids got up at their usual time.

Extra hour of sleep, my ass.

[Lion EA]

My "kids" with the new premie are not at all happy with the time change.  Infants can't tell time and still cry to be fed and changed at their usual times.  I remember going to college where the time did not change and living where it did; made reading the train schedules a challenge.

[jklcpa]

[Abby Normal]

My solution to DST is change the clocks permanently by half an hour. It's too brilliantly simple and elegant to ever be implemented. You're welcome.

[rfassett]

My solution to DST is change the clocks permanently by half an hour. It's too brilliantly simple and elegant to ever be implemented. You're welcome.

Properly worded we could probably get a grant in sufficient amount to allow most of to retire to study the impact of such a simple and elegant implantation suggestion.  Anyone on board?

[Catherine]

My solution to DST is change the clocks permanently by half an hour. It's too brilliantly simple and elegant to ever be implemented. You're welcome.

LOVE it -- and you are right.  Too elegant and too simple ever to be implemented.

[Gail in Virginia]

According to a paper published by M. J. Kotchen at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, the most likely effect of DST is to cost us energy.  Using data from Indiana when they changed over to DST statewide, residential energy use actually increased overall.  From the paper published:

          

        We find that DST results in a 1% increase in residentialelectricity demand, and the effect is highly

          statistically significant. We also find that the effect is not constant through-out the DST period. In

       particular, DST causes the greatest increase in consumption later in the year, with October estimates

         ranging from an increase of 2% to nearly 4%. Consistent with Benjamin Franklin’s original conjecture,

         our simulation results show that DST saves on electricity used for illumination but increases electricity

         used for heating and cooling. Both the empirical and simulation results suggest that the latter effect is

                 larger than the former. Moreover, we find that DST costs Indiana households an average of $3.29

                 per year in increased electricity bills, which aggregates to approximately $9 million for the

        entire state.  Finally, the social costs in terms of increased pollution emissions range between $1.7

        and $5.5 million per year.

 

The entire text can be found at http://environment.yale.edu/kotchen/pubs/revDSTpaper.pdf

Really makes it seem worthwhile to screw up our sleeping habits twice a year, doesn't it?

 

[rfassett]

 

Really makes it seem worthwhile to screw up our sleeping habits twice a year, doesn't it?

 

Well - for us that have chosen this industry it only messes with our sleep once a year.  The other clock change (the Spring one) we are all either not sleeping anyway or in a total sleep deprived condition anyway that we don't notice any affect of the change.  At least as far as sleep is concerned.  But most of us do grumble about losing an hour of work time.

 

[Abby Normal]

I don't care about the energy savings, I just don't want the sun rising a 4:45am! I think if we didn't have clocks we would naturally get up earlier as the sun rose earlier. That's why I think we should change time 1 min a day for 60 days! I know that wouldn't fly but how about we do 15 minutes for 4 consecutive Sundays? No?

Actually, that's sort of what I've been doing on my own the past few years. 5 minutes a day for 12 days. But this 'fall back' I'm trying something different. I adjusted my day half an hour earlier than under DST. Which is actually half an hour later than I was getting up. Then in the spring I only need to adjust back by half an hour. Yes, I have to make sure I go to sleep half an hour earlier, but that doesn't bother me.

[Catherine]

According to a paper published by M. J. Kotchen at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, the most likely effect of DST is to cost us energy.  Using data from Indiana when they changed over to DST statewide, residential energy use actually increased overall.  From the paper published:

          

        <snip>

 

It all makes perfect sense; the program was started as a way to *save* energy.  Since it does the opposite, instead of scrapping it they expanded it.  Typical government program action.  (That is NOT meant to be a political diatribe, but rather a snarky snipe at bureaucracies and how they make decisions in general.  How many times to we see the exact same "methodology" in every bureaucracy we deal with... too bleeping many!)

[mcb39]

Well - for us that have chosen this industry it only messes with our sleep once a year.  The other clock change (the Spring one) we are all either not sleeping anyway or in a total sleep deprived condition anyway that we don't notice any affect of the change.  At least as far as sleep is concerned.  But most of us do grumble about losing an hour of work time.

 

Not to mention our medications, our pets and our inner hungry times!

[kcjenkins]

Well, when Franklin came up with the idea it made sense, because illumination was really the only thing effected, because they were not heating with electricity or cooling with anything, really.  So it's a solution that has out-lived it's usefulness.  Of course, governments almost never kill a program for such a "silly" reason.