Daylight Saving Time

Daylight Saving Time (note it is “Saving” and not Savings) is an interesting topic – especially since too many people forget to change their clocks and arrive at a particular destination an hour too late or too early the next morning… Was this concept originally invented merely to mess with the masses and cause exponential confusion? It may seem that way – but there appears to be a method to the madness.

Of course, the name itself lends to the suggestion that time is being saved, but if this is actually the case – where has all the time been stored and when do we get to start spending it?

As much as I would like to find the answer to this question, it appears this concept itself is named in error. The idea of Daylight Saving Time was never put in place to save time – those who came before us were seeking to save energy. The concept of Daylight Saving Time was first implemented during World War I in an effort to conserve energy for war production.

The idea was the take advantage of the later hours of daylight between April and October. A study was conducted by the U.S. Department of Transportation after the oil embargo of 1973 that found the observation of Daylight Saving Time in March and April saved the equivalent in energy of 10,000 barrels of oil each day. Based on this data – which appears to be holding fast in the years since – shouldn’t gas and other fossil-fuel driven energy sources be getting cheaper?

As puzzling as that question might be, consider the Daylight Saving Time confusion in Australia alone. While the majority of the main country changed clocks nearly a month before the United States, Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory no longer observes this practice.

Imagine how life must be for those who live in Tweed Heads – on the New South Wales and Queensland border in-between communities that do and don’t observe Daylight Saving Time.

Split time schedules rule school and work, suggesting the re-emergence of sundials may be more effective in keeping everyone on track!