That’s what this article in the Wall Street Journal suggests.
For a long time, it has been widely believed that daylight-savings time would reduce energy use. More sunlight, less lighting costs, or so the theory goes. Up until two years ago, a minority of Indiana’s counties participated in daylight-savings time. But in 2006 the state legislature mandated the entire state would follow daylight-savings time. This scenario provides the kind of data any Freakonomics-type economist dreams of.
What are the findings?
Indiana households spent $8.6 million extra in electricity bills. The researchers concluded that the reduced cost of lighting in afternoons during daylight-savings time is more than offset by higher cooling costs on hot afternoons and heating costs on cool mornings.
According to the WSJ article, a 1975 study by the Department of Transportation showed that daylight-savings time reduced demand for electricity by 1% in March and April. But a 1976 report by the National Bureau of Standards found no significant energy savings.
I find this data interesting, so I thought I’d check the data provided the Energy Information Administration. The EIA data shows 2,769 kWh (central air conditioners) or 950 kWh (room air conditioners) by 57.5 and 23.3 million households, respectively. That’s 80 million households with AC. By contrast, the average household consumed approximately 940 kWh of electricity for lighting.
So, 107 million households burning 940 kWh for lighting equals roughly 100 billion kWh. 80 million households with AC, on the other hand, consume 183 billion kWh of electricity! Indiana’s $8.6 million in additional electricity usage equates to about 78 million kWh or enough to power 7,300 more homes.
I don’t think this is the economy of candles Ben Franklin envisioned when he suggested waking Parisians earlier in the day to enjoy more natural sunlight.