EU polls favor abolish biannual clock change: idea for Australia ?

[skysurfer]

In the EU, about 80% of the voters (including me as an EU citizen) in the poll do not want to change clocks twice a year. However, it is unclear what time zone the individual states will use. Some say DST all year round, which I don't hope for W Europe as the Sun rises at 10 o'clock around midwinter due to the high latitude.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/europe-has-another-bright-idea-that-could-complicate-uk-s-brexit-plan-20180902-p5019e.html

Should be a good idea for Australia, because, unlike the EU, not all states change clocks for DST.
What are your opinions ? Should clock change in NSW/VIC/TAS/SA be abolished and if yes, which time zone should they adopt ?

[lazjen]

Changing the clock twice a year has always been a stupid thing to do. At least now people are starting to realise it and the impact that it has.

Pick a timezone and stick to it. If seasons cause variations in the daylight hours available, then it's up to "you" to adjust.

[Wavytone]

It’s only stupid to those who don’t understand why it was introduced in the first place. It was to limit the morning and evening peak demand for electricity.

Get rid of it and electricity bills will take a hike to pay for the infrastructure needed in the morning and evening peaks.

God help us when millennials are allowed to make decisions based on tweets. Just because something is popular doesn’t make it an optimum solution.

[acropolite]

Daylight saving is a fantastic idea if you live in the southern states. I can understand why Queenslanders don't like the idea but for Tasmanians at least the extra leisure hours are a bonus.

As Nick indicated daylight saving was re-introduced as a power saving measure.

As for adjusting to daylight hours that's a good concept if you're unemployed or retired but for those of us who have a day job, changing starting and finishing hours isn't practical unless the whole system does the same.

[dannat]

with our population & many esp in retailworking so late i think the power saving reason is less an issue [have friends whose office jobs are 10-6], im not a fan of DS in general -bit it does mean it gets light bloody early in Melb if you weren't to have it

[lazjen]

I understand the justifications for it at the time - the reduction in fuel costs as a temporary wartime measure. The need for those sorts of things has long gone.

We've moved into a world that is more than 9 to 5 and is global, so some adaption needs to be done, no matter the timezone you are in. Changing the clocks is just a brute force approach that solves some problems but creates a lot more.

I'm not a millenial and don't deal with tweets. I've been fighting Daylight Savings for years when it was supposedly popular.

[RickS]

I vote for global adoption of Swatch Internet Time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swatch_Internet_Time

...and Esperanto :lol:

[traveller]

I prefer Klingon myself... :P

[JA]

I'm content to remain with Daylight Savings usage, otherwise Dawn and Dusk are good too -:D

Best
JA

[multiweb]

How about unix timestamp watches and another end of the world will be around the corner. :scared:

[LewisM]

I've lived on UTC time for 20+ years...adapting to trivial things like DST is...well..trivial.

Whatever works, works.

Cows still know when to come for milking, and the curtains won't fade any differently...

[RickS]

Hopefully, we won't care about COBOL this time around ;)

[casstony]

I'd prefer not to have daylight savings - it gets dark too late in the summer.

[tlgerdes]

I love DST!

I change TZs so often in a year with travel that changing it twice more to get more efficient use of the available sunlight for personal recreation is still a good thing.

[Nikolas]

DST is excellent for the later evenings, not a fan of waking up due to the sun coming up at 4am in the summer, bugger that...
Keep DST as is end of story.

[skysurfer]

Or, even better, abolish timezones at all and use UTC everywhere. Much easier. What's wrong with getting up at 21:00 and going to bed at 13:00 ? Just getting used to it, like a conversion of US units to metric or EU national currencies to Euro which happened successfully in the past.

But, admittedly, it is rigorous and I think it will never happen as most people are addicted that noon should be at 13:00.
A second best option is keeping timezones, but only full hour timezones and no clock changes.

But that is my opinion.

[redbeard]

For me, I work during the day so to be able to setup the scope in daylight ready to use when it gets dark is a huge bonus. It takes a while to setup the scope, guiding scope, weights, leveling, connecting everything and testing all plugged in works etc, and I am just done by the time it gets dark, So in that case DST for me.

However, when I was a kid and had to go to bed when it was still light, that sucked!

:)

[SimmoW]

Changing the clocks twice a year is great, it reminds us to also change our smoke alarm batteries....and our Prime Ministers!

[sil]

Split the difference and change half hour, once and never again after that. People need to adjust and damn the electricty, we're humans, we won't save electricty, we're selfish and need it always.

[Wavytone]

Good heavens - the obvious compromise !

Now everyone can be unhappy... or happier...

You should be a politician... you’d make a better job of it than Malcolm did !

[Peter Ward]

I guess I’m in with the stupid mob, and fail to see how adjusting a clock affects electricity peaks...surley they will occur twice a day, regardless of what the clock says?

It has been constantly rejected in WA as residents there found themselves getting home at 3.00pm solar time and had to run their aircon because it was still too hot...whereas if you were still al work you’d likely be in an airconditioned environment, run at the employers expense.

As I had always been a shift worker, DST mattered little to me, but did make being a night owl for late night imaging sessions a PITA due having to get up an hour earier to be in sync with the rest of the worker bees. Not everyone is a morning person!