Daylight saving time

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Bylo Selhi
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Post by Bylo Selhi »

Shakespeare wrote:
It has a built-in computer that uses astronomic tables to automatically advance/retard on/off times throughout the year as the seasons change.
What's wrong with a simple photosensor controller? Automatic season adjustment without the astronomical tables. :wink:
That's too simple for a computer geek ;)

Actually that's what I tried first, however the porch has an overhang that blocks natural light from getting to the fixture. When I installed a screw-in photocell switch between the fixture and bulb it wasn't sensitive enough to switch the fixture off during the day.

But yes, I'd much prefer a photocell solution. It's a far simpler, more elegant and less expensive solution that also insulates me from the whims of people like Dubya and Bill.
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Shakespeare
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Post by Shakespeare »

I installed a new mounting with both photosensor and motion sensor (Heath/Zenith, from Wal Mart). I originally had a Noma one from Crappy Tire, but the motion sensor quit working after a year.

My porch faces due east and has a slight overhang. There is also a light standard at the end of the driveway.
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Shakespeare
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Post by Shakespeare »

Remember to add one (algebraically) to your offset in your profile, e.g. GMT-7 (MST) becomes GMT-7+1 or GMT-6 (MDT/CST).
Sic transit gloria mundi. Tuesday is usually worse. - Robert A. Heinlein, Starman Jones
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Post by AltaRed »

One of the recent Windows Updates must of installed a patch because the PC showed the right DST this morning.
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Bylo Selhi
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Post by Bylo Selhi »

AltaRed wrote:the PC showed the right DST this morning.
It did but you still have to update the correct GMT offset in your Profile. That's a "feature" of the phpBB software that we use. (I've had to update the profiles on several phpBB-based forums in which I participate.)
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Post by brucecohen »

A protest against DST
As Michael Downing points out in his new book, Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time, urban businessmen were a major force behind the adoption of DST in the United States. They thought daylight would encourage workers to go shopping on their way home. They also tried to make a case for agriculture, though they didn't bother to consult any actual farmers. One pamphlet argued that DST would benefit the men and women who worked the land because "most farm products are better when gathered with dew on. They are firmer, crisper, than if the sun has dried the dew off." At least that was the claim of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, chaired by department-store magnate A. Lincoln Filene. This was utter nonsense. A lot of crops couldn't be harvested until the morning dew had evaporated. What's more, morning dew has no effect whatsoever on firmness or crispness.

Perhaps farmers should take one for the team — i.e., put up with DST even though they don't like it because it keeps city cash registers chinging into the twilight. Yet the contention that DST is good for business is doubtful. It may help some businesses, but it also stands to reason that other ones suffer. If people are more likely to browse the racks at Filene's Basement in the daylight, then they're probably also less likely to go to the movies or take-out restaurants. And in the morning, when it's darker during rush hour, commuters are perhaps disinclined to stop at the corner store for a newspaper or the coffee bar for a latte. Although it's impossible to know the precise economic effects of DST, any attempt to calculate them carries the malodorous whiff of industrial policy.

We're also informed that DST helps conserve energy, apparently because people arriving home when the sun is still up don't switch on their lights. Didn't it occur to anybody that maybe they compensate by switching them on earlier in the morning? Moreover, people who arrive home from work an hour earlier during the hot summer months are probably more prone to turning up their air conditioners. According to Downing, the petroleum industry once was "an ardent and generous supporter" of DST because it believed people would hop in their cars and drive for pleasure — and guzzle more gas.

But the very worst thing about DST is that it's bad for your health. According to Stanley Coren, a sleep expert at the University of British Columbia, the number of traffic accidents and fatal industrial mishaps increase on the Monday after we spring forward. (Check out one of his studies here.) The reason, presumably, is because losing even a single hour of sleep over the weekend makes a lot of people a bit drowsier on what we might usefully call Black Monday. Unfortunately, there's no compensating effect of a super-safe Monday as we go off DST and "fall back" in the autumn.
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Post by adrian2 »

Bruce Cohen's article wrote:We're also informed that DST helps conserve energy, apparently because people arriving home when the sun is still up don't switch on their lights. Didn't it occur to anybody that maybe they compensate by switching them on earlier in the morning?
Doesn't it occur to the author that many people would wake up while it's already daylight, thus not needing to switch the lights on in the morning?
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Post by Gus »

A pedant's view:
Spelling and grammar

The official spelling is Daylight Saving Time, not Daylight SavingS Time.

Saving is used here as a verbal adjective (a participle). It modifies time and tells us more about its nature; namely, that it is characterized by the activity of saving daylight. It is a saving daylight kind of time. Similar examples would be a mind expanding book or a man eating tiger. Saving is used in the same way as saving a ball game, rather than as a savings account.

Nevertheless, many people feel the word savings (with an 's') flows more mellifluously off the tongue. Daylight Savings Time is also in common usage, and can be found in dictionaries.

Adding to the confusion is that the phrase Daylight Saving Time is inaccurate, since no daylight is actually saved. Daylight Shifting Time would be better, but it is not as politically desirable.
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Post by Shakespeare »

since no daylight is actually saved.
But it is rented. :wink:
Sic transit gloria mundi. Tuesday is usually worse. - Robert A. Heinlein, Starman Jones
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Post by ig17 »

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Post by dakota »

Shakespeare wrote:
since no daylight is actually saved.
But it is rented. :wink:
It was just starting to get light in the morning when I got up, now it's dark again. I hate that, don't care how soon it gets dark in the evening but give me daylight in the morning when I get up.
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Post by Beek »

I'm not minding it... I like getting home from work with tons of daylight to go
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Was daylight savings time implemented correctly on the....

Post by Mouly »

host of this site?

My posts seem to be recorded at the old pre DST time. For example, I'm posting this note at 3:11 pm in Toronto.
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Re: Was daylight savings time implemented correctly on the..

Post by Bylo Selhi »

Mouly wrote:Was daylight savings time implemented correctly on the host of this site?
It was. But the more pertinent question to ask is, "Was daylight savings time implemented correctly in the Profile of the poster?"

[Look for Timezone near the bottom.]
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Post by yielder »

Image
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Post by eezee »

Methinks this letter is 16 days late :lol:
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Post by brucecohen »

From today's Globe: Has daylight saving time fuelled gasoline consumption?
OTTAWA — The U.S. government's plan to save energy by advancing daylight saving time -- and the copycat action by Canada -- appears to have driven up gasoline consumption as motorists took advantage of the evening daylight to hit the road, a Calgary energy analyst says.

Peter Tertzakian, chief economist at ARC Financial Corp., said the daylight policy is a textbook case of politicians "exacerbating the problems they were originally trying to tackle."

He said U.S. gasoline demand was growing at a rate of 1.9 per cent prior to the early introduction of daylight saving time, then jumped to a rate of 2.9 per cent, which represents an additional 266,000 barrels a day of crude oil imports.

As part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the U.S. Congress decreed that daylight saving time would begin this year in mid-March, rather than the first week of April, and would end a week later this fall.

Sponsors of the bill claimed the extra daylight in the evening would save electricity because Americans would use fewer lights during the waking hours. With the exception of Saskatchewan, Canadian provinces fell in line with the U.S. measure because they did not want to be out of sync with their major trading partner.

But Mr. Tertzakian looked at data on both electricity and gasoline consumption for that three extra weeks of daylight savings time. He concluded that, while there was a negligible impact on power usage, demand for gasoline climbed significantly during the period.
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Bylo Selhi
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Post by Bylo Selhi »

How many Connie M. Meskimens can there be in Arkansas? Well at least one of them is an [Intellectual] Bankruptcy Lawyer :shock:
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Post by millergd »

Bylo Selhi wrote:How many Connie M. Meskimens can there be in Arkansas? Well at least one of them is an [Intellectual] Bankruptcy Lawyer :shock:
If she truly authored this, and she is a lawyer, does this thereby qualify her as a vexatious literator? :D

Do you think it's the same one that is listed in the Hot Springs phone book?

~millergd~
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Post by The Management »

A reminder.

The default forum clock has changed from standard time to daylight saving. You will need to adjust your own time zone in your individual profile.
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Shakespeare
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Post by Shakespeare »

Posters should remember to reset their time zone in their profiles. For MDT/MST, it's GMT-6 to GMT-7.
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Post by skepticus »

Do calendars need adjusting too? I can't figure out how to set mine back an hour.
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Re: Daylight saving time

Post by The Management »

The default forum time has been set to EDT. You might want to change your personal time by going into the User Control Panel and clicking the DST option.
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Re: Daylight saving time

Post by pmj »

DST didn't show up here - until I made the selection below, the board clock was displaying 1 hour behind my system clock.

It looks to me that it's a user setting at User Control Panel - Board Preferences.

Firstly you set your time zone - then twice each year you have to select/deselect daylight saving time.
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Re: Daylight saving time

Post by Bylo Selhi »

It's that time of year again. Remember to set Summer Time/DST is in effect to No in User Control Panel, Board Preferences tab, Edit global settings.
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