Turn back your clock this weekend

Tme Change - 2007

Video

The subject in this video is Ben Mischey, owner of Big Ben's Clock Shop in Austintown. He has been repairing clocks for decades and will have a lot of clocks to change this weekend.

The time has come to turn back the clocks. But this year that time — Daylight-Saving — has come one week later than in the past.

Daylight-Saving Time has been extended by one month, thanks to the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which took effect this year. Under the promise of energy conservation, Americans enjoyed sunnier evenings for three additional weeks this spring and one this fall. That extended period will expire Sunday at 2 a.m.

The government is still studying the effects of this year’s extension, said David Prerau, author of “Seize the Daylight: The curious and Contentious Story of Daylight-Saving” and a consultant to the co-sponsors of the Energy Policy Act. The energy savings picture will not come into focus for a few months, he said.

Daylight-Saving is based on the theory that an extra daylight hour in the evening decreases the need for electrical lighting and encourages people to venture outdoors, away from household appliances. Overall, experts estimate that Daylight-Saving Time reduces energy use by about 1 percent. Though the figure represents only a small proportion of total energy usage, the savings is nonetheless significant, said Prerau. A Daylight-Saving Time extension, during 1986, was shown to save about 300,000 barrels of oil annually.

For more, see Saturday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com