Prior to this year the last Sunday in October was that date that Daylight Saving Time ended. Starting this year it will be the first Sunday in November.
*Republished from Spring 2007
For those who don’t know the rhyme we spring ahead an hour in the spring and fall backward one hour, in the fall. Some people mistakenly call it Daylight Savings Time, but it is Daylight Saving Time.
In 1986 the dates for DST in the US was established as the first Sunday in April and the Last Sunday in October. In 2007 with the Energy Policy Act of 2005 that President George Bush signed into law in 2005, the new dates for Daylight Saving Time will begin on the second Sunday of March and end the first Sunday of November.
It all depends on who you ask whether Daylight Saving Time is a good idea or not. One study done in the 1970s by the U.S Department of transportation shows that the country’s electricity usage is cut by about one percent each day with Daylight Saving Time.
Why is this? One of the biggest uses of energy is for electricity for lighting our homes. By moving the clocks ahead in the spring, it gets darker later in the day and the need for lights in the house are less, since they need to come on later. Also with sunlight later in the day, the plans for outdoor activities rise meaning less electricity would be used, since people aren’t in the house to use it.
Daylight Saving Start and end dates beginning in 2007.
Year – Begins – Ends
2007 – March 11 – November 4
2008 – March 9 – November 2
2009 – March 8 – November 1
2010 – March 14 – November 7
2011 – March 13 – November 6
2012 – March 11 – November 4
2013 – March 10 – November 3
2014 – March 9 – November 2
2015 – March 8 – November 1
Unlike it was years ago, when I use to have a list of clocks that I needed to manually set when I arrived early to work on the Monday after DST change, many systems will automatically reset to the correct time. With the change of the dates for DST, it is possible older devices will not change correctly. Hopefully by March of 2007, patches for systems will be developed otherwise you may be setting clocks again. (There was some problems with this and apparenty there was also some problems in October too)
Daylight Saving Time is not a modern idea. Benjamin Franklin first mentioned it in a letter to the Journal of Paris in 1784.
It wasn’t put into practice until the German government put it in place in 1916.
The U.S. Congress established it at the same time they formally adopted the Rail Road Time Zones in 1918. It became so unpopular that the law for DST time was repealed in 1919.
In 1942, during World War II, DST was reinstated in the U.S. although from the end of the war in 1945 until 1966, there wasn’t a Federal Law that addressed DST.
In 1966 DST was established and has been in place since, although the law gave states the capability to exempt themselves and a few, such as Arizona and Hawaii have. Many countries follow some sort of DST plan.
Hopefully your clock will be changed correctly. If not you’ll be walking into work an hour late on Monday in the spring or an hour early in the fall.
Along with the change of clocks with DST, Fire departments recommend that the battery in fire and smoke detectors be changed. There are studies that show that a working smoke detector can more than double a person’s chances of surviving a home fire. It’s also estimated that as many as 1/3 of the homes with smoke detectors have dead or missing batteries.
© 2007 Steven G. Atkinson – All rights reserved – Technology Tips for Small Business – tt4sb.com
