tinkering with clocks

[cellio]

It seems ironic that we are back on "standard" time -- ironic because we spend more of the year now on the other sort, and it will get worse next year. What'll it be then, close to eight months of daylight savings time and four of standard time?

I understand the motivation to re-align the window of daylight to fit one's preferences, but that's doomed because we don't all have the same preferences (so the strongest lobby wins) and it's not as if clock-tinkering can actually extend the amount of light in the day. It might be wiser to just admit that noon comes at noon and sometimes that means dark mornings or dark evenings, and suck it up. Do we really need sunsets at close to 10PM in June? Does that get you anything that you can't get enough of with a 9PM sunset? And what's the harm of a 5:30 sunset in late October instead of a 6:30 one? If you work normal hours that extra hour of light probably doesn't let you do anything enjoyable (you're on your way home or eating dinner, most likely), and kids have been out of school for a couple hours by then so they've had plenty of running-around-outside time.

On Thursday I drove to morning services in pitch dark, and I had to consciously dawdle in leading the service so that the sun would rise before the first prayer that must be said in "the morning" hit. I don't know what this group will do next year, when DST continues through November. The minyan is when it is so people can get to work on time.

Comments

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

I think there's noticeable energy savings overall in doing it that way, but I'd have to go look for proof.

As for "morning" is that defined as "after dawn" for the purposes of the service? If so, I can see that would be a problem.

[cellio]

I suspect there are noticeable energy savings because we have adapted what we do to account for DST. Schools and conventional working hours, for instance, could just as easily start later in the winter than in the spring/fall.

I also wonder how much of the savings in lighting is eaten by increased use of air-conditioning (because it's hotter later in the day).

As for "morning" is that defined as "after dawn" for the purposes of the service?

Certain parts have to be done after sunrise, yes. There are some preliminary prayers where that doesn't matter, so you can start before sunrise so long as you don't get to those parts too quickly. With current scheduling there's only about one week where that's an issue in this congregation; next year it'll be an issue for about a month, getting worse each week by several minutes. I'll be curious to learn what they'll do about it.