Daylight saving time

[JustLooking]

Why is it that so many timers, programmable thermostats (and the like) are still manufactured without the ability to automatically change the time between GMT and BST at the right moment, despite being sophisticated in so many other ways?

OK, a rhetorical question and I know there are some that do have this feature, but as I had to post something...

 

[snowhead]

It won't matter as Daylight saving time was due to be scrapped, before Covid intervened.
Currently awaiting agreement / ratification across European Countries at the moment.

 

[pc1966]

It is an argument that runs and runs. However, the UK had a particularly stupid arrangement where parliament might decide on the dates to change, but that was harmonised with the EU in the "The Summer Time Order 2002" act that at least made it algorithmic.

 

[pirate]

I have long advocated for a much more radfical Summer Time change. Basically you reset the clock so that in Summer you get up at what was 4am, when it's already getting light (a favourite time for me to go for a scenic walk in good weather) and then you work 8 hours and go home at mid-day and then have another 10 hours of daylight to enjoy your hobbies and pursuits. I know...there are many attendant problems with this...but for me, as a retired person who is also insomniac, it works very well!

 

[newfutile]

I hope it is scrapped what a waste of time (pun intended) , figuring out what timers/clocks need adjusting ,the only benefit I ever got from it was an extra hour in the nightclub

 

[EricMark]

I have to use UTC even when DST is activated, for some things. (Not called GMT any more as the observatory has moved, it is called unified time constant [UTC]) it is the only way to work internationally.

The problem is Union agreements and the like, I know we all wanted an early morning start on the Friday before the long weekend so we could travel home in daylight, however before 7 am it gained a shift allowance so we could not start before 7 am.

The problem is to not change from UTC means we have less daylight after work, and to remain on DST has already been tried and caused deaths on the roads in Scotland due to children going to school in the dark. I know on the Falklands the time difference changed from 3 to 5 hours, so it was a problem working out when to phone etc. And on the Falklands we had two times, Camp time and Stanley time, in the farms the farm manager would say when the workers started work, in Summer that may have been 4 am.

Clearly to have an electronic bit of equipment auto change it needs to be connected to internet and have a country setting. And in large countries a sat nav built in so it knows which time zone it is in. For example Australia is divided into three separate time zones: Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) Australian Central Standard Time (ACST), and. Australian Western Standard Time (AWST).

I remember travelling to the Falklands we changed our watches every other day. When sailing from Cape Town. And the radio 4 time signal is about to be dropped, not tried phoning TIM in years.

 

[brianmoooore]

DST has already been tried and caused deaths on the roads in Scotland due to children going to school in the dark.

They either go to school in the dark or come home in the dark. They have to be at school by a certain time, so there's likely to be much less "messing around" in the mornings compared to the afternoon when they can take longer ways home with much horseplay.

 

[nicebutdim]

They either go to school in the dark or come home in the dark. They have to be at school by a certain time, so there's likely to be much less "messing around" in the mornings compared to the afternoon when they can take longer ways home with much horseplay.

Also the fact that DST works in the opposite manner to that described by Eric - clocks go back in the autumn, meaning mornings are brighter, but the effect doesn't last long as you can't legislate against lattitude.

Personally I'm on the fence. On one hand I like tradition, whereas I can also see benefits in not having time changes. Scotland talked about setting their own time some years back, but it seemed to be more about politics than practicality. For the UK to feel real benefits of time changes, we'd have to implement multiple zones according to lattitude & longditude and doing so would be absurd.

 

[littlespark]

Scotland talked about setting their own time some years back

Was that one of Nicola’s bright ideas?



My wife has family in New Zealand, and when our clocks go back, there’s go forward… and vice versa…. And not on the same date…
Generally, they’re 13th hours ahead… sometimes 14, sometimes 12, occasionally 15 or 11 for maybe a week.

 

[nicebutdim]

Was that one of Nicola’s bright ideas?

It's been mooted a number of times over the years and probably again during her tenure, although I couldn't say for certain.