UK Daylight Saving

Author
Discussion

cologne2792

Original Poster:

2,144 posts

133 months

Wednesday 31st October 2018
quotequote all
Why are the forward and back dates not equidistant from the shortest day ? Currently 8 weeks before and 14 after...

Moonhawk

10,730 posts

226 months

Wednesday 31st October 2018
quotequote all
Yep - I commented on this sometime earlier in the year.

It does seem to make little sense for the change to and from GMT/BST to be offset relative to the winter solstice. Why does "winter" extend further beyond the winter solstice than it does before.

They could be equalised, but it depends what you choose to equalise that would dictate the date

Equalise on day length = clocks would go forward on 14th Feb
Equalise on sunrise time = clocks would go forward on the 11th Feb
Equalise on sunset time = clocks would go forward on the 27th Jan

Alternatively you could simply set the date ~two months after and say the last Sunday in Feb.

I suspect the dates are set relative to the meterological winter which lags by around 4-6 weeks behind the day length.

Edited by Moonhawk on Wednesday 31st October 22:12

Johnnytheboy

24,498 posts

193 months

Wednesday 31st October 2018
quotequote all
Or you could just stick to one time, say GMT,and stop lying about what the time is.

Beati Dogu

9,193 posts

146 months

Thursday 1st November 2018
quotequote all
It's about farmers mainly, so they have more daylight time to attend the crops etc. Harvest festival is at the end of September. Plus energy saving reasons.

It came in in 1916 during WW1. During WW2, Summertime was +2 hours and Winter time +1 Hour over GMT.

The Mad Monk

10,612 posts

124 months

Thursday 1st November 2018
quotequote all
Beati Dogu said:
It's about farmers mainly, so they have more daylight time to attend the crops etc.

Er, no.

Doesn't matter what you do with the clocks, the amount of daylight each day remains exactly the same.

Odd that.

Simpo Two

87,086 posts

272 months

Thursday 1st November 2018
quotequote all
As said, the hours of light is fixed by astronomy. GMT is so bloody miserable; we should be on BST all year round. Nicer and much simpler.

Can't see we save any energy either, you just have your lights etc on sooner. No daylight is 'saved'.

Johnnytheboy

24,498 posts

193 months

Thursday 1st November 2018
quotequote all
Simpo Two said:
As said, the hours of light is fixed by astronomy. GMT is so bloody miserable; we should be on BST all year round. Nicer and much simpler.
Self-contradiction ahoy!

Surely by that rationale it doesn't matter what time zone we choose? So why not choose one where midday is more or less midday?

Beati Dogu

9,193 posts

146 months

Thursday 1st November 2018
quotequote all
The Mad Monk said:
Beati Dogu said:
It's about farmers mainly, so they have more daylight time to attend the crops etc.

Er, no.

Doesn't matter what you do with the clocks, the amount of daylight each day remains exactly the same.

Odd that.
Obviously it doesn't create more daylight. The idea is that the main hours of human activity are effectively shifted to favour sunlight later into the evening. Thus supposedly saving on heating, lighting etc.


Personally I detest it changing over and would love it if we stayed on Summertime all the time too This was tried as an experiment between October 1968 & 1971, but was discontinued unfortunately.

85Carrera

3,503 posts

244 months

Thursday 1st November 2018
quotequote all
Beati Dogu said:
It's about farmers mainly, so they have more daylight time to attend the crops etc. Harvest festival is at the end of September. Plus energy saving reasons.

It came in in 1916 during WW1. During WW2, Summertime was +2 hours and Winter time +1 Hour over GMT.
I thought it was down to Scottish milkmen ...

If we had another referendum and those of us who subsidised the Picts were allowed a say on whether we wanted to continue to subsidise them we could bin it

Gandahar

9,600 posts

135 months

Friday 2nd November 2018
quotequote all
We should be on BST always as it helps dog walkers rather than farmers who get money for not growing crops and stay in bed dreaming of how much money they have earn't not doing any work.

Same for kids, in the old days it was so kids could walk to school in the morning with some daylight and not fall into an old Victorian well. Nowadays with SUV lights that automatically come on concerned parents can take their drug sniffing 16 year olds safely to school with laser LEDs. So they cannot argue with change.

Meanwhile us poor dog walkers actually have to take Fido out on his or her biological clock and ends up being in the dark and standing in things like, er, dog poo . Nooooooooooooo

Go figure. Lets get back to nature. Woof.


Gandahar

9,600 posts

135 months

Friday 2nd November 2018
quotequote all
Just out of interest. how much daylight has been saved due to daylight saving? In watts or KJ or ampules per French person?

Bugger all

Simpo Two

87,086 posts

272 months

Saturday 3rd November 2018
quotequote all
Johnnytheboy said:
Simpo Two said:
As said, the hours of light is fixed by astronomy. GMT is so bloody miserable; we should be on BST all year round. Nicer and much simpler.
Self-contradiction ahoy!
It's not a contradiction. The hours of light are the same whatever you do, it's the sudden shift of them backwards that's depressing.

Johnnytheboy

24,498 posts

193 months

Sunday 4th November 2018
quotequote all
Simpo Two said:
Johnnytheboy said:
Simpo Two said:
As said, the hours of light is fixed by astronomy. GMT is so bloody miserable; we should be on BST all year round. Nicer and much simpler.
Self-contradiction ahoy!
It's not a contradiction. The hours of light are the same whatever you do, it's the sudden shift of them backwards that's depressing.
So stick to GMT all year, job done.

annodomini2

6,913 posts

258 months

Sunday 4th November 2018
quotequote all
They do it for school kids and workers in the north of Scotland.

Farmers work when they need to work, whether that is 3pm or 3 am.

Leave it on BST and be done with it, more light of an evening.

Gandahar

9,600 posts

135 months

Sunday 4th November 2018
quotequote all
annodomini2 said:
They do it for school kids and workers in the north of Scotland.

Farmers work when they need to work, whether that is 3pm or 3 am.

Leave it on BST and be done with it, more light of an evening.
Exactly

It's not even done for school kids or workers in Scotland either nowadays unless the electric light bulb has not been invented up there yet.

BST 24/7/365.

2 sMoKiN bArReLs

30,602 posts

242 months

Sunday 4th November 2018
quotequote all
Johnnytheboy said:
Or you could just stick to one time, say GMT,and stop lying about what the time is.
We did that thing in about 1970.

fttm

3,865 posts

142 months

Sunday 4th November 2018
quotequote all
You guys ought to try living in a country with multiple time zones, and then being in the only zone which doesn't change twice year. Confuses the crap out me, frequently rolleyes