On daylight saving

On daylight saving

Helen Lok's letter Daylight savings in the Aug. 4 edition of
The Jakarta Post made the classical mistake of imagining
electricity can be saved by putting the clocks forward. In fact,
the lights will be switched on when it gets dark and they will go
off when the sun comes up, or when people go to bed, irrespective
of what time that is.

Simply stated, the number of hours during which the lights are
on is unaffected by clocks. The reason clocks are put forward
during the summer in some countries is to allow people to finish
work "earlier", thus providing more daylight hours in the early
evening for leisure activities; it is not done to save
electricity.

But Helen need not fret about this minor oversight. When
Australia first introduced daylight saving many years ago howls
of protest were heard from citizens concerned it might hasten the
rate of curtains fading!

DAVID BEINS
Jakarta