Daylight Saving Time

[phuquehall]

In the UK, we switch to British Summer on the last Sunday of March and revert to GMT on the last Sunday of October. if the purpose is 'daylight saving', logically I would have thought, the dates of the time changes should centre around the shortest day which is usually 21st December. However, we revert to GMT some 51-57 days before it and switch to BST some 93-100 days after - indeed the latter is always after the Equinox. Anyone have an explanation?

Look forward to your responses!

[Old_Geezer]

Can't be sure but I guess it may be an asymetrical change over the year. Probably a graph on the Net somewhere if you search.

IMO we all ought to have radio controlled clocks and regularly set official time so that 'getting out of bed time' is always a set time after dawn. But if one tries it unilaterally one gets out of sync with everyone.

[Frank97]

http://en.wikipedia.o.../Daylight_saving_time

[Jonathan-Joe]

Another Wiki page http://en.wikipedia.o...saving_time_in_Europe states

[i]Before 1996, DST ended on the last Sunday in September in most European countries; however in the United Kingdom and Ireland DST ended on the fourth (which some years is not the last) Sunday in October.

In 1996, daylight saving time was harmonized throughout the European Union by Directive 2000/84/EC, which moved the end of DST to the last Sunday in October.[i]

So most European countries, before 1996, agreed with your logic that the time changes should (more or less) centre around the shortest day (given that Sunday is the most convenient day of the week for the change). I cannot find any reason why this was changed by the EU Directive.

[Kathyan]

We only get so many daylight hours in a day, so how can they call it 'daylight saving'? We are not actually 'saving' any daylight just moving it from early in the morning to later in the day!

[HowardKennitby]

Pure guess this but it may have something to do with the fact that for most people their 'day' is not symmetrical about noon.

[phuquehall]

Hi all and thanks for your responses although i don't feel as if we have cracked it yet.

Kathayn, I agree with you which is why I put the phrase in inverted commas! I nearly put it as a supplementary but i suppse the answer is really that it just became accepted as a phrase without anyone bothering to think about it first. There are many such examples. Thanks anyway.

[mibn2cweus]

If they reeeeaaally want to save us all some time, why they don't just set the clocks back 24 hours and thereby . . . save us the whole day?

[wildwood]

I hate it when the clocks go back to 'normal' time. Why can't they leave them in DST mode permanently.
It must be a logistic nightmare for international businesses, so if we shift the GMT one hour we will all have an extra hour after coming home from work - in the winter when it is really needed.

[Old_Geezer]

But you are saving it Kathyan; because you are not sleeping through so many hours of daylight before you get up.

I'd much rather have morning light in the winter when I'm making my way in not yet fully alert, than at the evening when I'm already hyped to the max.