Pwned.

http://tech.yahoo.com/blog/null/83073

Study: Daylight Saving Time actually raises utility bills

Fri Feb 29, 2008 2:06PM EST

It's official: Daylight Saving Time is a bust. Designed (and recently extended) as a measure to save energy in a period of inflated electricity prices, an in-depth University of California study has now shown that DST doesn't save anyone any money at all. In fact, it's costing consumers extra, to the tune of $3.19 in extra utility bills per year.

The study was made possible because of the peculiarities of the state of Indiana, which was only partially on DST until 2006. When the whole state finally went DST (to sync with the national business day), some comparisons vs. the prior method were made apparent. The study calculated that the shift costs Indiana residents an extra $8.6 million in electricity bills in total.

Why? Shouldn't they be, well, saving daylight -- and burning fewer light bulbs?

They are, said the study. But while lighting bills were reduced, air-conditioning units had to run more often, because people were home on hot afternoons when they'd otherwise be still at the office. Heaters had to be run on cool mornings, too, when people got up and it was still dark outside.

Professor Matthew Kotchen, who pioneered the study, noted, "I've never had a paper with such a clear and unambiguous finding as this."

This isn't the first time the energy-saving rationale of Daylight Saving Time has been attacked. The first was in 1976, three years after DST went into effect, when the National Bureau of Standards found that there was no significant energy savings after the switch. The recent expansion of DST to a few extra weeks was also revealed to have saved no energy during its run. And yet here we are...

In related news, it was also revealed that Daylight Saving Time actually creates no additional daylight.

If we're gonna scrap this, can we do it quickly before I lose my hour this weekend?

Im willing to pay a little extra if it means I get out of work when the sun is still shining.

While I think DST is really the stupidest thing ever invented, the location of Indiana probably exaggerates the costs more than other areas closer to the middle of the time zone. Now, I haven't been to Indiana, but from my experience, it's normally dark by about 9:30 PM or so... Since Indiana is basically in Central time, it's probably closer to 10PM or later, which would make the cost of running the A/C more than, say, Virginia.

But DST is still stupid. It is the epitome of government micromanagement.

If that's the motivation behind it, it should be done in the winter instead of summer.

Wasn't it designed to help farmers, originally?

This is exactly why we don't do daylight savings time here in Arizona.

100 years ago, when there were no air conditioners, DST may have made more sense.

I'm a big supporter of abolishing daylight savings.

I love me some daylight savings time.

The sun is up later when the weather is warm. This allows those of us who do a lot of outside activities to get more time doing what we love after work.

I'd be fine with it staying that way all year long. But isn't the rational behind changing it back so it's not dark at bus stops in the morning? I can't really argue against that.