14 DAY TRIAL // Daylight saving appeared originally in ancient times, but the first recorded proposal for the use of this convention came from Benjamin Franklin, during a visit in France, when he proposed that Parisians could make a more economic use of candles if they were to wake up earlier in the morning. In 1905, William Willett invented daylight saving time, or DST, also known in the United Kingdom as the summer time, and two years later he proposed it for implementation.
Daylight saving time basically means that during the summer period, clocks must be set one hour in advance, so that the human species makes better use of the light received from the Sun. Aside the obvious advantages which descend from the use of such a time scheme, there is also the myth of electrical energy saving suggested by Benjamin Franklin. So, do we really save more energy by implying the use of DST?
According to University of California researchers, we don't, not only that but the reverse effect takes place. Mathew Kotchen, the lead author of the study, says that the only reason we use this time standard today, is the aberrant idea that by doing so we are saving up more energy during the use of artificial lighting devices. The standard became widely used during the World War I, mostly in the United States. As a result of non-scientific research, the US Congress decided in 2005 to keep the DST standard and limit it between the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday of November.
Meaning that standard time is not even standard, due to the fact that DST is used during two-thirds of the calendar year. Kotchen writes that there is, in fact, very little evidence to support the idea that DST save any energy at all. During the study of DST efficiency, Kotchen had the opportunity of studying the phenomenon on the US' state of Indiana, which finally implied the use DST only since 2006.
The researching team found that, during this time interval, more than 77 counties in the state of Indiana suffered from the shift from standard time to DST, resulting in the loss of as much as 8.6 million dollars or so. Believe it or not, the biggest proportion of this energy loss is due to the use of air conditioning units, which, if we were to the period of World War II, were rather scarce during that time.
More sunlight, immediately translates into a good odd that you might arrive from work while the Sun is still high up in the sky, and an increased demand of the use of air conditioning units. Kotchen says that, in the technological and economical situation of the moment, the use of DST standard is unjustified.