This morning many people around the country woke up and may have been a little confused about the time. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, it’s daylight saving time again.
Some people argue that it saves energy and according Newsweek’s Fresh Greens blog, the Department of Energy reported that the time change saves 17 trillion Btus. I guess that is kind of cool, but when the average home uses 106 million Btus per year that 17 trillion gets eaten up pretty fast.
I would really love to know if people actually use less electricity. Most of us have to get up early in the morning and go to work and that requires turning on lights, A/C or heating when necessary. Does that balance out with the electricity we aren’t using when we get home from work?
According to GreenDaily, when Indiana started daylight saving time it saw an increase in electricity usage. There doesn’t seem to be a clear set answer on this and how could we possibly control when people turn on their lights. It could be broad daylight and people will still turn on their lights.
In my opinion, cutting back on electricity is not going to come with daylight saving time, it’s going to come with regulation and education.
What do you think?
Photo: Courier-Journal
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