between 26 and 27 March, hands forward by one hour
Tonight at 2 am the hands move forward by one hour: the sun will therefore rise and set later. Seven months later, on the night between Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 October, the hands will again be moved, this time back by one hour.
When and where daylight saving time was born.
The timetable change for the summer months is an initiative born in Great Britain in 1916, with the aim of making better use of sunlight. The first to have expressed the need to take advantage of the first light of day, however, was Benjamin Franklin as early as 1784. Moving the hands of the clock, however, was the intuition of a New Zealand entomologist and astrologer of British origin, about a century later: George Vernon Hudson, in 1895. But it was even later, in 1916, in fact, that the idea took the form of public deed, The British Summer Time. Determining the need for save energy due to the ongoing war.
Summer time in Italy
Italy was one of the countries experimenting with summer time since 1916. However initially it was a extraordinary measurein fact repeated during the second World War. He was the 1966instead, the year in which the the provision became final and repeats every year.
Summer time in the European Union
In 1980 with a first directive, the European Council “proposes itself as the only one objective of progressively harmonizing the start and end dates of summer time“. From the 1994then, another directive set the beginning and end of summer time: “from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October in all Member States”.
How much you save
According to the estimate made by the company that manages the national transmission grid, during the seven months of summer time Italy will save over 190 million euros and will have a lower electricity consumption of approximately 420 million kilowatt hours, which is equivalent to average annual requirement of about 150 thousand families. «An important environmental benefit, quantifiable in the reduction of about 200 thousand tons of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere“.
Abolition of summer time
The change of time it is no longer a need shared by all. the countries of Northern Europe that benefit less from sunlight have for some time been asking to change mainly the European provisions. First there was an online international referendum in which 4.8 million European citizens took part: 84% said they were in favor of putting an end to the time change. 2022 could be the last year of summer time if the European Union issued a directive that, like the one that standardized its adoption in 1996, would standardize the single time throughout Europe.