When change solar time 2022? Between the night of Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 October, on the stroke of 3, the hands of the clock will have to be moved back an hour and we will have to live with it for about five months. You will sleep more, but you will lose an hour of light in the late afternoon. But hadn't there been a proposal to abolish solar time? The debate, at European level, is always very heated. The decision? Always far away even if in the era of energy crisis, with electricity and gas bills skyrocketing, the opportunity to keep summer time all year round for many would translate into savings in money and energy.
Solar time 2022: when does daylight saving come back?
Solar time would be "natural" time, for this reason on Sunday we will move the hands of our clocks back one hour. This means that the real time change takes place in March, when summer time returns to take advantage of the greater daylight there is during the beautiful seasons.
The new time change – from solar to legal – will start as usual on the last weekend of March 2023, therefore between Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 March. On that occasion we will have to move the hands of the clock forward by 60 minutes: we will sleep less for one night but we will have more light during the day.
Summer time was introduced in Italy in 1916, with the legislative decree 631: with interruptions between 1921 and 1939 and then between 1948 and 1965. At the EU level it has been in force since 1976, even if it has been at the center for some time of various controversies. Let's see which ones.
Abolition of solar time 2022, the debate: summer time all year round or never?
In 2018, discussions began on the changeover from standard time to summer time. In 2019 the European Parliament he pronounced himself, with 84% of the votes, in favor of abolishing summer time; however, the final decision was deferred to the individual Member States. With the freedom of choice, however, a second problem has emerged: if each country decides on its own, in Europe there will be different times in addition to the time zones already present.
At the moment none, including ours Country, spoke concretely on the matter. Contrary to maintaining summer time throughout the year, obviously, are the countries of Northern Europe, which by virtue of their proximity to the Arctic Circle naturally enjoy summers with very long days. Instead, countries in favor ofabolition of solar time are those of southern Europe, even if Italy would like to maintain the current situation, with the alternation of solar time and summer time.
Abolition of solar and daylight saving time change: the pros and cons
By abolishing solar time, they really would positive effects on bills? According to many, there would not be all these advantages because the estimates do not take into account the greater consumption of electricity in the morning that would be created with permanent daylight saving time.
One of the reasons why some countries are instead unfavorable to the time change is linked to the negative effects that this has on the body: the time change every year causes a lot stress e physical discomforts which are recorded mainly on the most sensitive subjects, including children and the elderly. However, other experts warn that daylight saving time deviates from the human body's circadian rhythms to a greater extent than solar time: waking up before dawn is one of the underlying causes of metabolic disorders, cardiovascular problems and insomnia.
Should you keep daylight saving time all year round? Terna's calculations
According to Terna's calculations made in March, before the surge in prices, the 7 months of 2022 in which daylight saving time would remain in effect should lead to a savings of 420 million kilowatt hours, equivalent to the average annual requirement of about 150 thousand families, with a consequent economic saving of about 190 million euros. While from 2004 to 2022 the lower electricity consumption for Italy due to summer time was a total of 10 billion kilowatt hours, for a total of 1,8 billion euros. Not to mention the 200 thousand tons of CO2 not released into the atmosphere.
