As we prepare to “fall back,” turning our clocks back to standard time this November, many Coloradans will ask about why we use daylight savings time. It can be confusing and if you’re not paying attention, changing the clocks by an hour every spring and fall can make a mess of your day. But daylight savings time is believed to save the nation about 1 percent of its average energy use every day.
Longer days
Adding an hour to the end of summer days gives us sunlight during the time of day when it’s most useful. Here in Colorado, you can go hiking or for a bike ride or walk after work.
The longer you’re out and about in the evening, the less energy you will use at home. Your air conditioning won’t need to run as hard and you won’t need to have lights on to make dinner in the evenings.
Having daylight into the evening helps conserve energy.
Darker mornings
Even during daylight savings time, the sun still comes up before most Coloradans have to get up and prepare for the workday. So, the energy savings in the evening isn’t offset in most cases by shorter mornings.
When it was studied
The U.S. Department of Energy implemented daylight savings time during World War II in order to help the country conserve resources.
The first major study concerning energy conservation was conducted after the 1970s energy crisis when researchers determined daylight savings time reduced energy consumption by about 1 percent a day.
Indiana
Indiana did not observe daylight savings until 2006. Researchers found that implementing daylight savings there caused energy consumption to increase by 1 percent. Researchers have attributed the incongruous results to Indiana’s geographic location within the time zone. It didn’t observe daylight savings because it sits between two zones.
Lengthened daylight savings
In 2007, daylight savings time was extended by three weeks in the spring and one week in the fall in an effort to increase energy conservation. California researchers determined that the extension saves the country about 0.5 percent energy consumption per day.
Other energy-saving tips
There’s nothing you can do beyond observing daylight savings time along with the rest of the country to gain more daylight when you need it most, but the Energy Resource Center can perform a home energy audit to help you find ways to conserve energy in your Colorado home.
We perform free energy audits and weatherization upgrades for income-qualified residents in El Paso, Elbert, Fremont, Douglas Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla, Mineral, Saguache , Rio Grande and Teller counties. We can also do home energy audits and recommend upgrades to non-income-qualified homeowners. Our fee services help to support our nonprofit efforts.