I remember when they changed the daylight savings start/finish times for the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Had to go though a bunch of machines and manually patch in the new tzfile (this was before config management).
Also remember at one point NZ was having a potential power shortage caused by a drought[1]. Some senior government officials were suggesting bringing forward the start of daylight saving by a month with around 2 weeks notice.[2]
[1] - NZ gets most of it's power from Hydro
[2] - The jury is still out on if daylight savings saves power, especially since different places have low/high aircon usage.
I once tried to work out, based on power usage levels, if DST saves power (it's original purpose in wartime)
At best it's a wash. People all think that domestic lighting is a big power user, but in reality it's things like commercial shopping centres and office buildings that really suck down the juice. And typically those are run on a timer, so the pattern doesn't change (even if the timer is adjusted, the lights,ac and services are on for a fixed period of time).
Any savings for people having their lights off for 60 minutes less is swamped by people switching their AC on when they get home an hour earlier.
I still support DST as a quality of life thing, though.
> I still support DST as a quality of life thing, though.
I was amused at this comment, since i always dread the week or so after transitioning. Invariably my biological clock is screwed up and i'm something of a zombie in the morning at work and the later evening at parties.
It probably did save energy once, back when it was first introduced because I doubt most people used electricity for much more than a radio and lighting. Sure the rich likely did, but there aren't that many of them.
Well the idea is from before electric lighting was even a thing, so who really knows? I do wonder if the Russians have it right in their recent abolishment of the system.
Also remember at one point NZ was having a potential power shortage caused by a drought[1]. Some senior government officials were suggesting bringing forward the start of daylight saving by a month with around 2 weeks notice.[2]
[1] - NZ gets most of it's power from Hydro
[2] - The jury is still out on if daylight savings saves power, especially since different places have low/high aircon usage.