Daylight-saving time found to cut energy usage in office buildings
While DST opponents often argue that the time change impacts our health, for instance through sleep disturbances, proponents make the case that electricity can be saved because of longer days, which means that less artificial light is needed. “That was the original intention behind the introduction of daylight saving. From our point of view, however, it makes sense to look not only at the impact on electricity savings in lighting, but on the overall energy consumption of a building,” explained Sven Eggimann from Swiss research organisation Empa. During DST, employees start their work an hour earlier in summer due to the time change, and thus leave the office earlier in the afternoon. Since most of the cooling happens later in the afternoon, this can save energy. The assumption behind…
