Why do we change clocks twice a year in spring and winter? With the switch to winter time this Sunday, October 30, the endless debate is relaunched.
At 3 a.m., it will actually be 2 a.m. Sunday October 30, the 2022 time change will have to be applied by all French people. A change to winter time that raises the same question every year for the curious and the refractory: why?
The winter time change aims to “save” this hour of artificial lighting in the morning to preserve the environment, but also the household wallet. In summer, it is in the evening that this hour is saved by taking advantage of later natural lighting and by advancing the hour. In its latest figures, the Environment and Energy Management Agency evokes a saving of 440 GW/hour each year. A disputed gain: low-consumption lamps would also have their share in this drop and good consumer practices, such as turning off the light in an unoccupied room, also play their part.
The time change therefore saves valuable energy and those times of energy crisis, but not enough. MEPs thus conclude, in a European Parliament study dated 2017 on the effects of the seasonal double time change: “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.”