From: "M. Edward (Ed) Borasky" <znmeb@...>
Date: 2006-10-25T10:51:13+09:00
Subject: Re: Fwd: [OT} DST - was Re: How can my boss take rails seriously with bugs like this?

Kevin Jackson wrote:
> Not sure about the US, but in the UK, the original reason for a BST
> (British Summer Time) change was so that farm workers had more
> daylight hours - don't know why the US calls it Daylight Savings Time
> though.
> 
> These days as we have so few farmers/farm workers left in the UK, that
> reason is no longer applicable, so now we have the following reasons
> trotted out every time someone mentions abolishing it:
> 
> 1 - tradition - the 'we've always done it' argument
> 2 - children walking home from school should be in daylight - hard to
> argue with that - except 90% of schoolkids are driven to/from school
> in air-conditioned SUV's and couldn't care less about whether it's
> light or dark
> 3 - saves electricity - this one is actually true - I've seen the data
> of the electricity consumption just before BST and after the change
> and the difference changing the clocks makes is remarkable (basically
> as you have more daylight, you use the lights less - although it
> doesn't make sense really as you will use them later, the usage of
> electricity is actually lower - suprised me)
> 
> Anyway, the electricity savings are real (at least the numbers I've
> seen), and given the political ramifications of reducing energy
> consumption (right now), don't expect any politician to advocate
> something that could potentially use more power...
> 
> Kev
> 
> 

Actually, IIRC it originated (here in the US, at any rate) during WWII
as an energy saving measure. I think it was all year round, or maybe one
hour in the winter and two hours in the summer.