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Opinion: November 26, 2021. Is Daylight Saving Time Really Saving Energy?

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Daylight Saving Time (DST) is the practice of advancing the clock by one hour in spring and moving it back in the fall. The idea behind this practice is to give us with an extra hour of daylight in the evening, in order for us to have the opportunity to spend more time outdoors. This would allow for less use of energy for indoor activities.

In practice is has been very difficult to establish if this actually saves energy. Different measurements have been attempted and the savings of electricity are small (around 1%) and usually offset by increases in the use of heating energy. Changing lifestyles and evolving technology have also their impact and most likely are making the practice less relevant from the energy perspective

It would be interesting to see a few years of no use of DST, in order to see if it is really useful. For further reading, please read this reference.

This post is intended to only raise awareness. In order to make actual financial decisions please contact your financial advisor and/or tax advisor prior to making the decision.