6. Simple approach to conserve electricity
People tend to waste several hours of natural light each day. Most of us wake up well after the sun rises and go to sleep long after it sets. If we spent more waking hours when the sun is out, we would not need to use as much electricity to illuminate our surroundings. Research from the 1970s suggests that extended daylight saving time produces a modest but significant energy saving of about 1% [15].
The potential of DST to save energy rests primarily on projected effects on residential lighting use. The assumption is that with more daylight in the evening, residents will delay switching on electric lighting in their home. Advancing the clocks 1 hour implies that lights will be switched on an hour later in the evening. Assuming the bedtime of residents does not change, this suggests that the “on time” of lighting with DST will be 1 hour less than without DST. Combining this basic assumption with knowledge of overall lighting energy use allows a simple estimate of the savings that may accrue with the adoption of DST [12].
In 2007, residential electricity use comprised approximately 24% of overall electricity use in Turkey [28]. Lighting comprised approximately 29% of all electricity use in Turkish households (Fig. 7) [34]. Therefore, residential lighting is responsible for 7% of all electricity consumption in Turkey.