More daylight saving 'uses more energy' - Breaking News - National - Breaking News

More daylight saving 'uses more energy'

Surely the demographic and industrial distribution of populations determines this ?!

Extending daylight saving increases rather than decreases energy consumption, according to a US study of Australia which has implications for both countries.
Prolonged daylight saving succeeded in cutting electricity use in the evenings, but this was more than offset by increased usage in the mornings, according to the study by California's Berkeley University.
The outcome weakens the argument of those proposing extended daylight saving months to curb Australia's high greenhouse gas emissions.
It also calls into question an imminent US experiment aimed at reducing energy consumption by one per cent during extended daylight saving periods.
The study examined Australia's experience in 2000 when NSW extended its normal five-month daylight saving time (DST) period by two months, starting it in August rather than October, to facilitate the Sydney Olympics in September that year.
Victoria followed suit to avoid confusion for people living on the NSW-Victoria border, but South Australia did not, responding to concerns in rural communities.
The study compared electricity usage in South Australia and Victoria.
"Our results show that the DST extension failed to conserve electricity," said authors Ryan Kellogg and Hendrik Wolff, who are working on their doctorates in economics.
"While the DST extension does reduce the evening peak load in Victoria in 2000, it creates a new, sharp peak in the morning.
"This 2000 morning peak is even higher than the evening peak in 2001."
"The one-hour clock time shift imposed by DST causes people to awaken in cold, low light conditions.
"This causes an increase in electricity demand that persists even one hour after sunrise.
"Extending DST only conserves energy if this morning increase in consumption is outweighed by the evening decrease; however, it is unclear that this is the case."
The authors noted that extra DST in 2000 had nothing to do with saving energy - it was designed to allow more Olympic spectators to travel and from venues in sunlight, and to reduce shadows on playing fields at game times.
They said Australia was ranked highest in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per capita worldwide.
"Our results indicate that the claims that extending DST in Australia will significantly decrease energy use and GHG emissions are at best overstated, and at worst carry the wrong sign.
"While we cannot directly apply our results to other countries without adjustment for behavioural and climatic differences, this study raises concern that the US is unlikely to see anticipated energy conservation benefits from extending DST."
The US congress legislated to begin daylight saving three weeks earlier this year. Normally it starts on the first Sunday in April.