It’s that time again! Time to prepare for turning forward the clock and gaining another hour of daylight on March 10.Daylight Saving Time began with Benjamin Franklin. He suggested that people would not need to use as many candles if they utilized most of the daylight by turning ahead the clocks. It was first established in 1918, but didn’t take off until the Uniform Time Act of 1966. Under that act, Daylight Saving Time began on the last Sunday of April and ended on the last Sunday of October. However, the current Daylight Saving Time follows the Energy Policy Act of 2005, where it begins on the second Sunday of March and ends on the first Sunday of November.
In this current age, Daylight Saving Time does not really impact on the energy spent. Discovery.com reports, “Although a U.S. Department of Transportation study in the 1970s found that daylight saving trimmed electricity usage by about 1 percent, later studies have shown that the savings is offset by air conditioners running in warmer climates.” However, another study shows that vehicular crashes drop around 10 percent.Places closer to the Equator do not experience much change in utilizing Daylight Saving Time and, therefore, do not follow it. In the U.S., Arizona and Hawaii do not turn their clocks forward. This begs the question: Is Daylight Saving Time an important feature or not?
Source: http://news.discovery.com/human/health/why-do-we-have-daylight-savings-time.htm
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