CAIRO: The Cabinet’s decision to cancel the already confusing daylight saving time raised more questions as to whether implementing the system conserved energy to begin with.
Last Wednesday, the Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, issued a decree canceling the daylight saving time, only a few weeks before Egypt was set to put its clocks forward by an hour on April 29.
“While I do not mind its implementation, I see it is an unnecessary complexity that is best done away with,” Amr El Beleidy, an independent energy expert, told Daily News Egypt.
It’s widely believed that the main reason behind implementing the daylight saving system is conserving electricity, since a good percentage of energy by lighting and appliances is consumed in the evening when families are home. Thus, by moving the clock ahead one hour, the daily consumption of electricity is decreased.
“The month of Ramadan is an exception to the daylight saving rule. Since it currently comes during the summer, we would be changing time four times a year instead of two, thus, adding unnecessary complexity and confusion with more workers having to adjust their schedules,” El Beleidy added.
The Egyptian Ministry of Electricity and Energy submitted a study to the Cabinet concluding that implementing daylight saving time has no impact on reducing electricity consumption.
Sharaf’s media adviser, Ahmed Al Semman, claimed that daylight saving time had no economic benefit but rather disturbs schedules of arrivals and departures at airports.
Some studies even concluded a negative effect on energy consumption by the daylight saving practice claiming that it increases energy usage.
The National Bureau of Economic Research conducted a study in 2008 concluding that the daylight saving system is found to save electricity used for illumination, but consumes more electricity used for heating and cooling. Empirical and simulation results suggested that the latter effect is larger than the former.
“If we look at Egypt’s particular situation, having more light in the mornings also means more heat and, therefore, could mean more electricity consumption for cooling,” El Beleidy explained.
The Information and Decision and Support Center (IDSC) had conducted a poll investigating people’s opinion towards the decree which showed that around 80 percent of respondents supported the decision to cancel it, 17 percent opposed it and 3 percent were indifferent.
“I believe the daylight saving is a mere confusing practice with no material benefit,” Amr Yassin, a computer engineer told DNE. “It might have been useful in the past by saving electricity but definitely not nowadays,” he added.
On the other hand, some people still support implementing the daylight saving practice. Mahmoud Asaad, a physician, says that he enjoys the extra hour of daylight in the afternoon. “I can use this extra hour to go out with my family or run personal errands,” Asaad explained.
Commonly known reasons for implementing daylight saving, other than electricity saving, include minimizing traffic injuries and lowering crime rates, an argument supported by El Beleidy.
“Implementing the daylight saving means more of our driving is happening in sunlight which no doubt decreases accident rates,” El Beleidy clarified.
However, El Beleidy said he believes people will adjust without any problems to the cancellation of the daylight saving time. “The only noticeable difference will be not having it as a topic of conversation for a week before it is time to change,” he said.
Daylight saving time was first adopted in Egypt in 1988 as a way to reduce electricity consumption. In Egypt the standard time is GMT + 2 and during the daylight saving time, it becomes GMT + 3. The daylight saving time starts at midnight on the last Thursday of April and is changed back on the last Thursday of September.
Historical background
The daylight saving time is a method to acquire more daylight during the day in the spring and summer through pushing forward the clock one hour, making the day virtually longer. Several countries have implemented the daylight saving time at one point. Currently, around 76 countries follow the daylight saving time in at least a portion of the country directly affecting more than 1.6 billion people worldwide. Japan, India, and China are the only major countries that do not follow some form of daylight saving.
According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, Benjamin Franklin was the first person to suggest the idea of daylight saving time after observing that people were sleeping during sunlight hours in the early morning and burning candles for illumination in the evening. He argued that if people adjusted their schedules to earlier in the day during summer months, when day length is longest, a great amount of wax could be saved by using sunshine rather than candles. To encourage the behavior, Franklin proposed the firing of cannons to awaken people at dawn and a tax on window shutters that keep out sunlight.
