Help power Marketplace this winter when you support the show today. Donate Now!
Final Note

Daylight Savings, a thing that exists for no discernable reason

Kai Ryssdal Mar 9, 2015
HTML EMBED:
COPY
Final Note

Daylight Savings, a thing that exists for no discernable reason

Kai Ryssdal Mar 9, 2015
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Even though it’s nice to have the sun out later in the day, there’s not much evidence that Daylight Savings Time actually cuts down on electricity use.

Via Quartz:

Another bit of research zeroed in on a natural experiment built around the US state of Indiana, which until 2006 had a patchwork approach to daylight saving time in which some counties participated and others didn’t. The researchers looked at electricity demand for counties that didn’t have daylight saving time for 30 years, and then started in 2006. The results?

We find that the overall DST effect on electricity consumption runs counter to conventional wisdom: DST results in a 1-percent overall increase in residential electricity demand, and the effect is highly statistically significant.”

But still, it being darker early is kinda depressing.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.