Dinogy - Energy Blog » How Much Energy will the Day Light Savings Law Change Save?

Curious to know just how much energy will be saved each year by the new day light savings time law change of 2007? We certainly were, so here's our back of the napkin calculation.

To calculate this estimate we will assume that every person in the US will be running one 60W light bulb for one extra hour for 21 extra days (since that's how many days it was moved up).

The population of the united states is 298,444,215 (according to the CIA July, 06). Multiply that by 60 watts, and then by 21 days. Now divide that result by 1000 to convert it from watt hours to kilowatt hours (which is how you pay for energy).

The amount of energy saved by the new law is 376,039,711 KWh each year.

I realize that kilowatt hours don't mean much to most folks so let's convert that into dollars. Using the average price of electricity in the US 10.6 cents / kilowatthour, that is a savings of $39,860,209.40.