Staying on BST to save money!

Miser1964

Good to see that staying on BST is now being considered by the Govt. The annual autumn nonsense of plunging ourselves into darkness by moving the clocks back, necessitating switching on lights around the home and turning on the heating sooner, can and must be stopped.

At times like this, any opportunity to save costs on electricity and gas for the majority must be taken. 

[Deleted User]

Terrible idea, but it’s the sort of thing they’ll end up doing because they don’t actually consider the consequences.

 The other way around makes more sense, stick with the right time zone for where we actually are on the globe - but I’m not sure we should do that either.

GingerTim

A profoundly stupid idea from a profoundly stupid government.

Mstty

From memory the higher up the country you go the later the sunrise and not having these time changes could mean no sunrise til 10am for North Scotland.

Something like that anyway.

Coffeekup

In the latter half of December and the first half of January it gets light around 8:15-8:45 where I am, if they changed it that it'll be 9:15-9:45 then sigh... On the plus side not so dark at 15:30.


Edit: not that that getting dark at 16:30 will make me feel any better. I'm struggling with it getting dark at 19:30 as it is

[Deleted User]

There must be a Department in Government that is tasked to come up with silly ideas. As usual, those who are London-based who give no thought to those who live in the Scottish Highlands and further North.

These changes cost money. For example, my static heating controls have built in GMT/BST time changes. I suspect that many businesses have similar timeclocks which do not connect to the internet.

Are we seriously going to spend £Ms moving back to Imperial measurements just because a particular Sec of State thinks it a good idea? I am in my 70s, and I can cope with Metric. 

QrizB

Personally I don't have a problem with the idea. It's not as though you're actually changing the amount of daylight in a day.

I have read that the UK tried this in the late 60s as British Standard Time and it was considered a success but permanent adoption was rejected by Parliament.

spot1034

How will it save money? Lighting is now a trivial part of energy consumption around the home with the advent of LEDs replacing the more expensive bulbs we used in the past, and in the winter months the lights will just be switched on in the morning rather than the evening, but there's a problem we can all identify where a light gets switched on as it's just getting light that then gets inadvertently left on long after it is needed, and we've all done this. 

Also - and this is a much more significant factor - in the early months of the year as the mornings get lighter, there will be days when an extra hour's sunlight will warm buildings and reduce the need for heating. If we all get up an hour earlier energy consumption will be higher, not lower. There is also the benefit that roads and pavements will be less icy by the time people go out and therefore lessen the chance of accidents and falls. 

spot1034

QrizB said:

Personally I don't have a problem with the idea. It's not as though you're actually changing the amount of daylight in a day.

I have read that the UK tried this in the late 60s as British Standard Time and it was considered a success but permanent adoption was rejected by Parliament.

It was an experiment that was ended early as the dark mornings were so disliked, particularly in the north where, as has already been said, sunrise under BST would be near 10 a.m,, and it would be as late as 9.30 a.m. in Manchester. 

It's a daft idea which I hope we don't have to go through again. 

facade

QrizB said:

Personally I don't have a problem with the idea. It's not as though you're actually changing the amount of daylight in a day.

I have read that the UK tried this in the late 60s as British Standard Time and it was considered a success but permanent adoption was rejected by Parliament.

I remember this trial when I was at school.

We all had to buy these reflective armbands, as there was going to be carnage walking to school in the dark first thing in the morning.

The expected carnage never happened, and after spending a gazillion pounds on committees, research & think tanks, it was concluded that first thing in the morning drivers were more alert than on their way home after a long day of toil and that lighter evenings would actually reduce road accidents, so like all good ideas, it was dropped.

Meanwhile in The War we had Double Summer Time, to increase productivity, as for some reason peasants won't get up any earlier to start work unless you fool them by moving their clocks!

If we adopted GMT +1 in the Winter and GMT +2 in the Summer we would be on the same time as Paris, which is only 2 degrees East of London, making their sunrise about 13 minutes earlier, and they seem to manage fine.

The_Green_Hornet

Miser1964 said:

Good to see that staying on BST is now being considered by the Govt. The annual autumn nonsense of plunging ourselves into darkness by moving the clocks back, necessitating switching on lights around the home and turning on the heating sooner, can and must be stopped.

At times like this, any opportunity to save costs on electricity and gas for the majority must be taken. 

I'm not aware of any UK Government plans to end Daylight Savings Time. Do you have a link?

I do know that the EU parliament voted in favour in 2019 to scrap DST but member states can't agree so it hasn't happened.