Dear Doug, It is probably time to conclude this fascinating discussion so this will be my final public offering (for a while).
> A significant part of my note is > reporting the work of others... Indeed so. I am familiar with most of your citations, especially, the report by the Cambridge Engineers. The methodology used was an utter disgrace in my view. It is exceptionally difficult to find a way of comparing like with like without getting biased results. Also, making predictions, especially economic predictions, is notoriously subject to error. My proposal to compare two adjacent U.S. towns in different time zones is a better approach but I am the first to admit that the two sets of results would not be truly independent (in the statistical sense) and the results would be biased. For example, there will be people who live in one time zone and work in the other. In terms of energy use, I don't believe a word of the analysis. The energy used when driving five miles to work is the same whether you drive in the dark or in the light. I suggest you study the experience of Portugal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_Portugal They have switched time zones several times and are forever being persuaded to use CEST. Sometimes they try it and then find how unsatisfactory it is... when school classes started, the sun was still rising, which eventually had repercussions on students' school performance and their safety during morning trips from home to school. A company hired by European Commission conducted a study which concluded that, in fact, there were no energy savings because in the early morning, due to the dark, workers turned on lights in their offices, and they forgot to turn them off, leaving them switched on for the rest of the morning, which increased energy consumption. ...insurance companies reported a rise in the number of accidents. Look, I don't believe all of this either! Lighting uses a minuscule amount of energy compared with heating and transport though, of course, it shouldn't be wasted. Portugal is now back on GMT and GMT+1 just like the U.K. Remember, the U.K. DID experiment with year-round summer time and then gave it up. You may say that this was because of grumbles from Scottish herdsman. I have always wondered just how Scottish herdsmen can be such a forceful political lobby! That doesn't stop them being right! > ...the middle of the effective > day has moved to something > like 3pm. Given your wish to fiddle with our clocks, this is ill-defined. I assume you mean three hours after solar transit? This is a case of generalising from yourself and those you associate with. Certainly count me out! In the 1980s I worked for a spell in Magdeburg University, then in the DDR. My hosting professor asked me if my lectures could be the first of the day. "Yes," I said eagerly. "Fine," he replied, "our first lecture is at 7am so I'll meet you in my office at 06:30 tomorrow." This suited me very well but I had to check with my landlady about breakfast. I explained that I would be leaving about 6am and I asked whether she could set out my breakfast the night before. "No need," she said, "I leave for work myself at 4am, so I shall set out your breakfast before I depart." As it turned out, I was the last person in the household to leave for work when I left at 6am. I had had some misgivings about the East German regime but this aspect seemed truly excellent to me! I now see that it wouldn't work in Portugal! By all means reply but I suggest "off-list". Very best wishes Frank --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
