This Sunday, October 30, 2022, France leaves summer time. Should we move the hands of our clocks forwards or backwards? At what time ? Here is the best way not to be mistaken…
As every year, at the end of October, the France switch to winter time. How should we go about making this time change correctly without making mistakes? It’s simple. This Sunday, October 30, at 3 a.m., it will officially be 2 a.m. So you have to set your watch back one hour when you go to bed or when you get up this Sunday morning., to start the day at the right time. While the majority of devices now set the time automatically, there are still doubts for old watches and clocks. In this case, the trick is repeated from year to year: at the end of the word octobRE, the time change consists of moving the hands back one hour. Simple and basic.
For those who, every year, wonder when the change to winter time takes place, remember that it always takes place on the last Sunday of October, and always at 3 am. It is a question of establishing a time lag to make the most of the hours of sunshine during sunny days, then at winter time to return as close as possible to universal time. How will the time change affect October 30? With this transition to winter time, the French actually gain an hour, and in particular an hour of sleep, the day on Sunday will actually have 25 hours.
Time change, the eternal debate
Every year, the time change is a matter of debate. Disrupting the biological rhythm for some, causing fatigue, sleep disturbances and irritation, it is an aberration for others. In winter, France is already one hour out of step with its geographical time zone. The GMT+1 system was adopted by the government in 1945 to better take advantage of the hours of sunshine. But by advancing the time by one hour more in summer since 1975, France thus takes a second hour difference with the time known as “GMT”. “Double summer time” is thus opposed by several associations which point out that France is one of the few countries to have adopted it.
The time change was adopted following the oil shock to save energy. According to Ademe, 1.3 billion kilowatts/hour are saved each year thanks to this device, ie the energy consumption of a city of 200,000 inhabitants. A gain that opponents contest and minimize.
We are making savings, but not enough. In European Parliament study dated 2017 on the effects of the seasonal double time change, MEPs conclude as follows: “If summer time is beneficial to the internal market, in particular the transport sector, and to leisure activities, [le changement d’heure] generates marginal savings in energy consumption and the impact on other economic sectors is largely inconclusive.”
A debate that goes beyond energy
The greater luminosity would make the roads a little safer at the end of the day in summer according to the defenders of the time change, while its detractors affirm that it is in the morning that the darkness becomes, in return, more accident-prone… In winter , the opposite modification, on the other hand, increases the risk of accidents according to road safety itself. It is also pointed out that the time change would shift a considerable mass of road traffic to times which would facilitate air pollution. As economic activity ends later each day than during the winter period, it is also industrial activity that would approach the coldest hours, once again favoring pollution peaks. A point that could be important as the energy crisis and the risk of power cuts this winter are real.
The debate on the time change therefore goes beyond the strict scope of energy. In many sectors, the time change can have an impact, such as in construction. The same applies to the agricultural sector where activity generally starts very early in the morning and where the sensitivity of animals to the vagaries of the weather is very high.
“Why the time change?”