4. Daylight Saving Time doesn’t Really SaveIn the map above, the blue areas use Daylight Saving Time, the orange areas no longer use it, and the red areas never used it.
Although it was developed to save energy on incandescent lighting, daylight saving time doesn’t really do much in terms of conserving electricity. In fact, some studies show that DST causes greater energy consumption. The idea behind DST is that adjusting time to take advantage of daylight hours would reduce the need for residential lighting in the evenings. But as it turns out, most homes’ lighting use doesn’t depend on the sun. And since the onset of more modern lighting technology, DST’s theories no longer apply very well. Daylight saving time does do some good, however. Some studies have shown a decreased number of car accidents during savings months. And retail stores generally fare better with more afternoon daylight too.
If daylight savings doesn’t save us energy, why, then, do we still use it? The practice remains controversial, and there really is no clear reason why it’s still in place. Most likely, countries continue to use DST because people are used to it. Also, many people prefer the light schedule associated with DST, even though it’s somewhat inconvenient to switch clocks. Still, some countries have switched from using saving time. And within, countries, time usage will vary from place to place. For example, in the United States, Arizona does not use DST, although all other states do. The same is true for Manitoba in Canada; although most other provinces use Daylight Saving Time, Manitoba, the central province, does not. All the variation around the world can be extremely confusing, especially for people travelling from place to place on a quick vacation.