Clocks Fall Back November 5, 2017!

It’s that time of the year again! Time to fall back and gain that extra hour of sleep that we begrudgingly lost in the spring. Daylight Saving Time will end on Sunday, November 5th, 2017 at exactly 2:00 a.m. You might want to set the clock back before you go to bed on Saturday night, so as not to be late for church or your usual activities on Sunday morning.

First, the good news! You get an extra hour of sleep on Saturday night, but will lose an hour of sunlight on Sunday. It’s the perfect opportunity to check and make sure that smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors throughout your home are working properly. Also, make sure that batteries are secure and working properly in all of these devices.

So, why Daylight Saving Time? The time change was first proposed by English architect William Willet in 1907 when he published “The Waste of Daylight.” At the heart of this time change proposal was actually the idea of making better use of the day’s light, especially during the winter months. Remember, this was back when people had to make the most of the daylight tending to their crops and other daily chores. Willet felt that many people were actually wasting the daylight, and he wanted to do something about it, and proposed a changing of the clocks. Willet wasn’t the only person to have ever come up with the idea. Even Benjamin Franklin proposed using the advantage of daylight back in 1784. Although he was not as forthcoming as Willet, Franklin believed that sunlight was being squandered and wrote a satirical letter to the editors of the Journal of Paris about it.

The time change was actually first practiced in the United States in 1918, when Congress passed the Standard Time Act to conserve fuel during World War One. They would copy this practice from European nations, who were doing their best to conserve time in the name of war efficiency. Although the act passed by Congress lasted for less than a year, many states continued to follow the Daylight Saving Time changes.

So, does Daylight Saving Time really save energy? This is a question that has been heavily debated. As of now, it appears that, despite all of the effort put forth by Congress, there isn’t much benefit to Daylight Saving Time. Studies have found that .5 to 1 percent of energy is saved on a daily basis and .3 percent is actually saved over the year.

There are many people around the nation who have proposed getting rid of Daylight Saving Time all together. This is controversial, as it believed that some companies and people actually benefit and sometimes even turn a larger profit from the time change. Some states have even opted out of the time change altogether.

Whatever side of the debate you happen to fall on, remember that this week we are falling back and gearing up for those cold winter months. Take the time to make sure that your home is properly prepared for the upcoming season so there are no surprises and no one is late on Sunday morning.

Source: Elizabeth Lane, Jefferson County Post Staff Writer