03-04-2008, 04:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Daylight Savings Time Increases Costs
http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-daylight0303,0,924321.story
As anyone with a computer knows that pays any attention to the updates their system receives, support personnel for operating systems and time management applications have spent a lot of time preparing daylight savings time patches for all manner of computing devices. We are often told that DST saves energy. There was a unique opportunity recently to study this claim as the state of Indiana in the US converted to DST in 2006.
"Their finding: Having the entire state switch to daylight-saving time each year, rather than stay on standard time, costs Indiana households an additional $8.6 million in electricity bills. They conclude that the reduced cost of lighting in afternoons during daylight-saving time is more than offset by the higher air-conditioning costs on hot afternoons and increased heating costs on cool mornings. "I've never had a paper with such a clear and unambiguous finding as this," says Mr. Kotchen, who presented the paper at a National Bureau of Economic Research conference this month."
So you save a bit on some incandescent lighting. More and more people are switching to the florescent bulbs in their lights anyway, which saves a ton of energy. What is happening though is people are cranking up the AC when they get home an hour earlier because the house is warmer and turning up the heat a bit in the morning because it is still dark and the sunlight hasn't had a chance to creep into your windows providing a bit of warmth. Don't you just love it when politicians get it in their head some preconceived notion of how the world works and start driving forward oblivious to the facts? And who pays? You and I. And that doesn't account for the time wasted by IT departments and end users trying to figure out the various tool to fix their software to correspond to the ever changing DST rules around the world.
I'd be perfectly happy if they just got rid of DST and if politicians would quit telling me how the world works and legislating my behavior to fit their idea of being a good steward of the planet.
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03-04-2008, 04:30 PM
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Contributing Editor
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 182
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Amen, brother!
<:soapbox:>
I am tired of the government butting in where they clearly don't belong. I, unfortunately, live in Indiana. Before the change to DST came along we were one of the last bastions of sanity in the US (now that distinction belongs solely to AZ, AFAIK). Okay, we did have some issues due to the fact that a handful (maybe a dozen or so) counties observed DST where the rest did not, but it was left up to the discretion of the county, not the state, who observed DST.
I am tired of politicians with no local interest making local laws that affect those who have no say in the choices made for them by the all-knowing, all-wise and all-too-powerful politicians who are supposedly serving us.
</:soapbox:>
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03-04-2008, 06:12 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 150
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Not to mention that I hate having to get up a friggin' hour earlier!!!
Leave the dang clocks alone!
__________________
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03-04-2008, 07:07 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,202
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Let me be a lone dissenter. I like DST! I wish it was always in effect. I'm just not a morning person, so the the later the sun comes up the better as far as I'm concerned. 
However, I agree with most of the political sentiments posted hear. There is no legitimate reason for our federal government to messing around with our clocks. It's just very small example of the kinds of things the feds get involved in that are a such a waste. Can anyone explain to me the logic of Federal Congressional Hearings regarding Steroids in baseball? Don't we have any other more pressing issues to deal with? Why don't we have congressional hearings on cocaine use of Movie Stars?
I often think our founding fathers would throw up on their shoes if they saw how large and all encompassing the Federal Government had become! :lol:
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03-04-2008, 07:26 PM
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Contributing Editor
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 182
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Don't get me started on the steroids thing.
Do I think steroids should be used by professional athletes? Probably not.
Do I think that Congress should be holding hearings about professional athletes using steroids? Absolutely not!
Just one of the very many ways they continually overstep their bounds.
However, we the people are complicit in all of it. It's easier to let the government take care of perceived problems than it is to get up off of our keisters and do something about it ourselves. We like the idea of a nanny state until they start doing something we don't like. I'm just as guilty as anyone else in this.
Whoops . . . this thread is about DST, isn't it. Sorry  ops: I will truly get down off my soapbox now.
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03-04-2008, 07:51 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 318
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No idea if this one is true or not... but i heard that they are outlawing incandescent light bulbs in 4 years or so, everything will have to be florescent. Argh!
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03-04-2008, 07:59 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 10
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by kpjackson
However, we the people are complicit in all of it. It's easier to let the government take care of perceived problems than it is to get up off of our keisters and do something about it ourselves. We like the idea of a nanny state until they start doing something we don't like. I'm just as guilty as anyone else in this.
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Amen brother/sister/whatever....
I live in Indiana and have also lived in 5 other states, DST is worthless. Time in not real... I could call it 1pm or "25 to 7 or 6 to 4" and it can mean the same thing.
As for our founding fathers... The "Government" is the people... you and I are the owners and therefore we are the government. The problem is we learned to vote for the idiot who offers us the most. We will spend ourselves into oblivion, socialize ourselves into the Nanny State and then we won't understand why we are no longer the world power we want to be.
9 Trillion in debt, a service based economy, and addicted to Wal-Mart... We're toast....
Ok Rant over...
BTW - Mitch Daniels (Indiana Gov) will have a lot of trouble getting re-elected because of DST and few other things....
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03-04-2008, 08:24 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 70
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I would like one time too. But I want Daylight saving time year round..
I hate Standard time, I want the day light in the evening when I get home from work to get stuff done. I could care less about dark in morning, just off to work any way. Plus I do not set back my stat, in my house I have found it saves $0. vs set and forget!
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03-04-2008, 10:24 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 45
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The energy issue was the original justification, but I believe another common proposed reason for DST was to eliminate children from going to school in the dark. Is it a good reason?
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03-05-2008, 01:08 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 41
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Joelacrane
No idea if this one is true or not... but i heard that they are outlawing incandescent light bulbs in 4 years or so, everything will have to be florescent. Argh!
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The feds are going to require us to all have the new HD lights! Have you seen the new HD lights. The light is incredibly clear. It is as if the light were in the same room.
To stay on topic... I like having more daylight after work. I would prefer DST year around as well. Am I the only golfer? Probably more of an issue for the northern states though!
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