Daylight saved but energy not; this spring it's something to lose sleep over
Katherine Loeck | March 17, 2006 12:37 PM | Link
Twice a year Greg Albrecht resets dozens of clocks in Anschutz Library.
As the night circulation desk supervisor, he thinks it's annoying to switch on and off daylight-saving time.
"It’s a hassle because our clocks usually end up a little bit off," Albrecht said. "It's an inconvenience to the patrons who come here."
The majority of America routinely changes to daylight-saving time. At 2 a.m. on April 2, Kansas and most of the nation will spring ahead an hour. Starting next year though, the schedule will extend by four weeks. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 changes the dates to March 11 through Nov. 4.
The reason, lawmakers say, is to save energy. By having more daylight at the end of the day, they predict people will use less electricity at night. But one University of Kansas expert says daylight-saving time is not saving anything. In fact, there are better ways to conserve energy, he said.
Brian Rock, associate professor of architectural engineering, said that the 2007 daylight-saving time extension would not change America's energy consumption much. How much?
"A very minor, minor impact," Rock said.
Rock has known for a decade that daylight-saving time does not have much effect on energy use in residential buildings. In 1996, he studied his own Lawrence home to look at the relationship between daylight-saving time and heating, cooling and electricity consumption.
A computer program used his residence to create a model to predict how much electricity and natural gas would be used at 224 U.S. locations over a typical year. Clock-shifting by one hour consistently showed no significant change in energy consumption or cost, assuming a fairly typical home and lifestyle.
In fact, the analysis showed that many more sites had higher energy costs than lower under daylight-saving time.
Next fall, Rock will teach "Advanced Thermal Analysis of Buildings". He hopes a student will study energy use and daylight-saving time at Marvin Hall.
"I fully suspect that someone will do this project for the semester and we will have some results that are publishable," Rock said.
Research done by California's energy commission during a 2001 energy shortage was fairly consistent with the results Rock had from his study, he said. The commission reported that, if daylight-saving time began in March, overall electricity use would only decline by about one half of a percent.
Claudia Chandler, the commission’s then assistant executive director, told National Geographic reporters that non-critical energy use is basically shifted to later in the day.
Rock admits there are psychological advantages to having people think they are helping to save energy.
“Daylight-saving time will impact the energy problem, sure,” Rock said. “The question is how much. It could be a negative impact, but hopefully it’s positive.”
Last year, the University spent $11 million on gas, electric and water utilities, said Doug Riat, director of Facilities Operations at KU. Daylight-saving time had a very minor impact on campus energy use, he said.
Not everyone dislikes the change. Mark Rainey, a Lawrence farmer, thinks daylight-saving time is a good idea. Rainey works outside on his house, yard, fences and fields, until it gets dark on his 15-acre farm.
“It’s nice so you can work longer in the evenings,” he said. “It gets light so early now that the change will be good.”
The sky glows around 7:30 one mid-December morning at 10th and Tennessee streets. Next week, the sun will begin rising around 7 a.m. under daylight-saving time.
Rock says energy use in residences could be more effectively reduced through traditional conservation programs.
“I’ve installed compact fluorescent light bulbs in my house and that has a very significant reduction in energy,” Rock said. “This is a little flippant, but turn off the heat and air and you’ll use a lot less energy. Unfortunately a lot of us had to do that this winter. That is the major way to decrease consumption.”
Rock still monitors energy at his home. He said his electricity bill increased significantly after he installed a new computer. In the average home, 25 percent of electricity is used for lighting and small appliances.
“While we are trying to save money elsewhere, the bigger TVs and electronic gizmos we all are buying now are really increasing our electrical consumption rather than decreasing it,” Rock said. “So, if we went back to the Stone Age, we could save a lot of energy.”
Since Anschutz library is always up and running, the only energy that daylight-saving time is affecting is Greg Albrecht’s. He works from 3 p.m. to midnight and says the hour loss of sleep in the spring takes him a couple days to adjust.