Does Daylight Saving Time Actually Save Energy?
Daylight Saving Time (DST) was designed to save electricity due to increased daylight hours and has been used for over a hundred years.
However, there is much debate about whether the clocks changing have much, if any, impact on energy conservation and the environment. With the clocks changing once again only a few weeks ago, we’re looking into the history of daylight savings – and the future.
A History of Daylight Saving Time (DST)
Daylight Saving Time (DST) is used through the Summer to provide more morning sunlight. The initial concept was first mentioned in 1784, and again in 1907, but was finally brought into effect in 1916 by wartime Germany. The goal was to utilise more daylight to replace artificial lighting, to save and conserve fuel for the war effort and increase war production. Once introduced, the UK quickly followed suit a few weeks later under the Summer Time Act 1916, with many other nations that were involved in the First World War also adopting the new times.
Although many countries discontinued DST after the first world war, the UK continued to use it and thus we still have British Summer Time (BST) today.
World War II
During the Second World War, all countries involved once again adopted DST, with the UK creating British Double Summer Time – bringing clocks two hours in advance of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) temporarily, with winter clocks also kept one hour in advance of GMT to increase productivity.
Once the war was over, the UK reverted to the normal DST, with the British Summer Time Act 1972 which started the changing of the clocks in March and October, with the EU specifying all EU countries could adjust clocks to this in 2022, excluding Iceland due to its extreme weather and daylight variations. Now, over 70 countries worldwide adopt DST, including North America.
Energy Savings
Unfortunately, there is not much research on the effects of Daylight Savings Time on energy usage, however, studies show that there is little positive effect on energy conservation.
An Italian study showed that moving the clock change from late October to late November, could save significantly more on fuel bills – an estimated €70 million.1
Furthermore, a study in the United States showed that Daylight Savings reduced the country’s energy usage by just 1%.2 Although a little dated, with the study performed in 1975 and much more energy being consumed nowadays due to a rise in technology and more houses, it is unlikely that it would rise to a significant amount if the same study was done in the present day.
Additionally, a European study has shown that although lighting usage decreased during DST, heating increased during the winter by 9%,3 which is not enough to compensate for rising demand for heating energy. What’s more, many households have devices using energy regardless of daylight, so the impact of the DST hours is less.
Future
Campaigners want to return to Double Summer Time to save energy and increase time in evenings after work obligations. The European Commission proposed abolition of clock changes in 2018, with the UK Government supporting it shortly after.
Although the changes should have come in by 2021, with the EU Council requesting the topic be addressed at the Parliament elections in 2023; EU Member states are divided over the implementation, meaning nothing has come to fruition.
Instead, one option may be to use natural time zones that are closer to solar times, aligning with the natural light and temperature, potentially leading to energy savings for industrial buildings and lighting.
Alternatively, a better, long-term solution may be long duration energy storage (LDES) technologies which store renewable energy to be used later when needed, to help reduce emissions.
1 Euronews
