I just don't care if it's dark in the morning. I am getting dressed and going to work where I am then in a building with florescent light for 8 hours. I care if the hours when I am actually able to do something -- after work -- there is some sunlight. If it's pitch black at 5:32 p.m. that means I have not had sunlight at all. I can't survive like that, I am not a mole person or a cave dweller. I have to white knuckle it through winter.
But if we ended DST, the sun wouldn't always set super early because the days are naturally longer in the summer. It's not like you'd be white knuckling it through summer without DST! Sunset on July 4 in DC was 8:33pm, with civil twilight at 9:08. It's not like moving that up would eliminate all evening light!
Because I live so far north, the only sun I'm going to see all day in the winter is going to be in the morning or if I leave my office midday, and this would be the same even if we kept DST all year long. At least on standard time, I get to see the sun rise over the lake. If we moved everything back an hour, it would be dark both when I left for work and when I came home. Talk about depressing!
Why was DST extended? I don't remember this at all.
A questionable assumption that doing so would save energy.
2005 revision to dates of observance
By the Energy Policy Act of 2005, daylight saving time (DST) was extended in the United States beginning in 2007.[8] As of that year, DST begins on the second Sunday of March and ends on the first Sunday of November. These changes result in a DST period that is five weeks longer than previously in years where April 1 falls on Monday through Wednesday and four weeks longer than previously in years where April 1 falls on Thursday through Sunday.[9] In 2008 daylight saving time ended at 2:00 a.m. DST (0200) (1:00 a.m. ST) on Sunday, November 2, and in 2009 it began at 2:00 a.m. (3:00 a.m. DST) on Sunday, March 8.[10] Wyoming Senator Michael Enzi and Michigan Representative Fred Upton advocated the extension from October into November especially to allow children to go trick-or-treating in more daylight.[11]
Under Section 110 of the Act, the U.S. Department of Energy was required to study the impact of the 2007 DST extension no later than nine months after the change took effect. The report, released in October 2008, reported a nationwide electricity savings of 0.03% for the year of 2007.[12]
An October 2008 study conducted by the University of California at Santa Barbara for the National Bureau of Economic Research found that the 2006 DST adoption in Indiana increased energy consumption in Indiana by an average of 1%. Although energy consumption for lighting dropped as a result of the DST adoption, consumption for heating and cooling increased by 2 to 4%. The cost to the average Indiana household of the DST adoption was determined to be $3.29 per year, for an aggregate cost of $1.7 million to $5.5 million per year.[13]
Wonderful summer evenings? You mean those days where it's still freaking light outside when I'm trying to get my kids in bed. Yeah, screw those days.
Do you have black out curtains? I have the cheap, paper black out curtains close to the window, and the actual blinds on the outside. My kids still go to bed around the same time.
We do. They do nothing for this. The kids are tied to solar movements on a cellular level. I have to run them up hills all day with no nap to sleep before sunset.
Mostly they're good for blocking the light the neighbor illuminates his flag with so they stay asleep.
The sun sets in London today at 3:55pm (though honestly, it's pretty much dark at 3pm with it being all cloudy & rainy). I would prefer for us to never have to change hours - it is horrible psychologically and physically for a while. Down with DST!
I spent a semester in Copenhagen. I had a class that got out at 3:30. This time of year, it would be night time dark when I got out of class. Thank God for all the Christmas decorations. I feel sorry for the spring semester students. I'd go back to the dorm and lay in the tanning bed. Yes, our dorm had a tanning bed. Because the sun set at 3PM.
I just don't care if it's dark in the morning. I am getting dressed and going to work where I am then in a building with florescent light for 8 hours. I care if the hours when I am actually able to do something -- after work -- there is some sunlight. If it's pitch black at 5:32 p.m. that means I have not had sunlight at all. I can't survive like that, I am not a mole person or a cave dweller. I have to white knuckle it through winter.
It's going to be dark at 5:32 regardless of DST or standard time because it's winter. Let's not have it be dark at 8:30 AM.
I looked out the window today at 4:30 pm today and it was dark. So it would have been dark at 5:30 if it was still DST.
Wow, this could be the only thing Bush did that I agree with. LOL
ETA: agree means I like it. I don't have a horse in the game of energy savings. I just like evenings that are light. My summer spent in northern Michigan was the best ever. Twilight at 11pm. YES PLEASE.
Bush has nothing to do with 11pm twilight in July. He's only responsible for the late ass sunrise in October and March.
It's going to be dark at 5:32 regardless of DST or standard time because it's winter. Let's not have it be dark at 8:30 AM.
I looked out the window today at 4:30 pm today and it was dark. So it would have been dark at 5:30 if it was still DST.
I was driving at 4:30 p.m. today and it wasn't dark. At all. So anecdotes. I, again, don't care if it's dark at 8:30 a.m. I am not out doing anything productive or enjoyable at that hour on any day. For ME, having light at the end of the day is the better bargain. What I want and prefer and frankly NEED has no bearing on what you want or need or prefer. So thanks, but you can quit trying to convince me that I shouldn't like or want DST.
I'm not trying to convince you what you need or prefer - I'm explaining the ramifications for people who live farther north.
You kept referencing 5:30...frankly 5:30 sunset would be glorious, because I'm still stuck on darkness at 4. Like I just looked out the window now, and granted today its foggy and I'm on the water and the foghorn keeps going off, but yeah, its pretty dark. I just googled and sunset is officially at 4:16 pm today.