|
Debate
on ‘changing the time’
Do we really have to change the clock?
By Sulochana Paranagama Electrical Engineer
 It
is unfortunate that some people in this country, more for personal
than common interests, have started a campaign to change the standard
time in use today. It is even more unfortunate that when Sir Arthur
Clarke pointed out the fallacy of this move, they started questioning
his qualifications, instead of responding to the points raised.
The
handful of people who lobby for turning the clock back to the previous
intricate GMT+5.30 standard, do not have a single logical reason
perhaps except for their unwillingness to get up half an hour early
in the morning.
Should we change the standard time of a country solely because few
people find “the mornings too dark”? Don’t we
have any simple way of addressing the issue such as changing the
starting times of schools than meddling with the standard time?
For the benefit of the readers, let me make a few clarifications
relating to this issue.
Is
GMT + 5.30 the 'actual' time in Sri Lanka?
No. According to its geographical position, the actual time in Sri
Lanka varies from GMT+5.21 (in Colombo) to GMT+5.24 (in Batticaloa).
So if we want to adopt the actual time it will be logical to adopt
GMT + 5.21 as the standard.
If
GMT + 5.30 is not suitable for us, why does India use it?
Unlike us, India has logical and historical reasons for using the
GMT + 5.30 standard. It is the exact time of the Allahabad observatory.
India is a large country that spans over more than one time zone.
They adopted GMT + 5.30 standard because it is more or less the
“average” for them. However, Indians have modified their
timetables accordingly. For example, towards the west coast of India,
where they find 'mornings too dark' schools begin at 10 am.
Do
we save energy by using the GMT + 6 (current standard) rather than
shifting back to the old standard of GMT + 5.30?
Yes, of course. It has been estimated that if we shift back to the
previous standard of GMT + 5.30, we will be spending 1% more energy
per day for domestic lighting purposes only. This is because then
we will be going to sleep half an hour later, and we all consume
extra energy within that half an hour. Please note the additional
amount of energy we spend in street lightning or in the commercial
establishments like super markets have not been taken into account
for this calculation. In other words, the additional amount of energy
we spend will be even more.
Is
1% of the daily energy consumption significant?
It amounts to an aggregate of 1 million units. According to CEB,
the domestic “small” category uses 1-90 units per month;
So on an average basis, a house in this category uses 1.5 units
per day – enough to power 5 Nos. 60W bulbs and a television
for 4 hours.
This means the 1% of electricity we lose by changing the clock can
actually power over 60,000 small households.
How
can that be, because if we change the standard time, we will save
energy in the morning for a period of half an hour?
Yes, this has been considered during the estimation. However, according
to the electricity consumption patterns in Sri Lanka, the amount
we save in the mornings will be much less compared to the additional
amount we might spend at night after the time change. This will
be obvious if you have a look at the CEB load curves. You will see
a small peak in the morning and a big peak at night.
If
we save energy by changing the clock, why was it not ob-served in
1996 when we first changed the time?
The situation was different in 1996, compared to what we see today.
Then only 50% of the households had electricity and the total consumption
was around 3.7 GWh.
Today
70% of the Sri Lankan houses have electricity and the total consumption
is more than 7 GWh. That means although we have not seen a drastic
drop in the electricity consumption in 1996 when we changed the
time, this time we will see a drastic increase in the daily consumption.
The
bottom line is we will not only save the energy but also will not
be termed as a country that changed its standards at the drop of
the hat by simply following whatever the standard we follow now.
Let us listen to Sir Arthur Clarke’s advice.
Note:
The clocks change at midnight on April 14 |
