Daylight Savings Time = Increased fuel usage?

[nemo]

Increase gas usage? Energy savings fact or myth?

But in a follow-up study on the effects of the extension, the California Energy Commission found the energy savings to be a paltry 0.18 percent at best. Other studies have indicated that people may use less of some kinds of energy, such as electric lights, but more of others. More productive daylight hours might be meant to get you off the couch and recreating outside, but they’re just as likely to lead to increased air-conditioner use if you stay home and gas guzzling if you don’t.

5 myths about daylight saving time - The Washington Post

[user removed]

Daylight saving time= going somewhere, sick of sitting inside a freezer waiting for my skin to fall off=more fuel used, hooray.

regards
mech

[nemo]

Turn up the heat.

[redpoint5]

The whole thing was ill-conceived. Sure, you might save some energy in one specific way, but loose productivity in many other unforeseen ways.

My manufacturing company shuts down for 2 hours during the fall-back time period. This is because manufacturing processes have time stamps, and you can't have a product with a time stamp showing it went through a later stage of processing before a prior stage of processing. I'd guess we loose $1 million per hour because of this.

That's nothing compared to derailing everyone's sleep pattern twice per year. Sure, the effects of the slight modification of sleep schedule are small, but compounded over an entire population the effect is massive. How many people are drowsy and less productive because of the time change? How many people forgot to set their clocks and miss an important deadline? How many people have died in car wrecks because they are slightly more tired while commuting? How much did it cost to replace all of the equipment that was obsoleted when the new time schedule was implemented?

There is zero chance that daylight wasting time is a net benefit to society. It needs to be abandoned; the sooner the better.

As an aside, if I wasn't happily married I would want to date Rachel. Her powers of reason are sexy. Too bad the ability to reason isn't a dominant mating trait. It seems quite the opposite is true.

[Piwoslaw]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

My manufacturing company shuts down for 2 hours during the fall-back time period. This is because manufacturing processes have time stamps, and you can't have a product with a time stamp showing it went through a later stage of processing before a prior stage of processing. I'd guess we loose $1 million per hour because of this.

I remember reading that all the night trains in a certain country would stop at the nearest station for 1 hour when the time is set back in autumn. Because a train can't arrive at its destination an hour early, can it?

I think the reason DST may increase fuel usage is because twice a year people get in their SUVs in the morning and try to figure out how to set their on-board clocks, while idling of course.

[niky]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

As an aside, if I wasn't happily married I would want to date Rachel. Her powers of reason are sexy. Too bad the ability to reason isn't a dominant mating trait. It seems quite the opposite is true.

Pardon me, madam, I couldn't help but notice how attractive your frontal lobes were from across the room... I just wanted to see if they were as beautiful up close...

[freebeard]

Dairy farmers were particularly flummoxed: Cows adjust to schedule shifts rather poorly, apparently.

Won't someone think of the dairy cows?

[RedDevil]

At the first day of DST I try to show up at work one hour early and pretend I did not notice DST had started. Always good for a few laughs

[drainoil]

I wish they would pick one or the other at just leave it permanently.

[nemo]

Originally Posted by drainoil

I wish they would pick one or the other at just leave it permanently.

Or split it.