Lighten Up

I am no fan of winter, and you may take that as a gross understatement.

I don't like the cold. I don't like the pale, watery light. I don't like the bare gray branches and the dry brown leaves scuttling ahead of arctic breezes. Winter may be an essential part of Earth's natural cycle. It may bring joy to the hearts of skiers, snow-shovel manufacturers and Santa Claus. But if there is anything good to be said about winter, you won't hear it from me.

Among the many faults I hold against the season is the whole darkness-before-dinner thing. Just when we need all the sunlight we can get to fortify our spirits against the cold, the sun itself succumbs to a wintry ennui, rising late and dragging itself anemically across the sky before sinking below the horizon in a listless swoon like the consumptive heroine of a Victorian novel, abandoning us to the long hours of the night.

So it was with unqualified joy that I learned that this year, by an act of Congress, the sun is being called to duty early -- almost a month earlier than last year. Thanks to the Energy Policy Act of 2005, daylight saving time, that herald of summer's sunlit abundance, will begin not on the first Sunday in April, but on the second Sunday in March. This Sunday, in fact. On Saturday, the sun will set on Washington at 6:10; on Sunday, at 7:11. Just like that, we are granted a magical extra hour of afternoon light.

What will you do with yours?

Feeling Sunnier

First, let's shed a little light on the subject of springing forward. For one thing, it is daylight saving -- not savings-- time; try officiously correcting people on that point all weekend just to make yourself popular. For another, nothing really happens to daylight itself, of course; the sun will look down upon us for virtually the same number of hours Sunday as it did Saturday. Only our clocks will change, cranked forward an hour so that Saturday's dusk will be Sunday's lingering late afternoon.

The main argument for the earlier start to daylight saving time (let's call it DST for convenience) is that, by turning our lights on later, we'll save a small but meaningful amount of energy. But this is not the first time DST's start and end dates have been repositioned on the calendar. In fact, since it was first made into national law in the United States (in 1918, when it was set to begin March 31), it has come and gone and darted all about according to the whims of political fashion. The 1918 version lasted until 1919, when it was repealed. (This and a host of other interesting facts about DST can be found on the WebExhibits site at http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving.) The latest jiggering of the dates came courtesy of an amendment introduced by Reps. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), the latter of whom noted cheerily that, in a statement released by his office, "the beauty of daylight saving time is that it just makes everyone feel sunnier."

Now that we're all feeling better, here are some suggestions on how to use your shining hour.

Save Your Energy

Hedging its bets, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 includes a provision to revert to pre-2007 DST dates should those potential energy savings fail to materialize. But since I heartily endorse a sooner-the-better policy when it comes to DST, I would like to propose that (just as you're supposed to use the changing of the clocks as a reminder to change your smoke-detector batteries) you use the arrival of DST as a reminder to review your own personal energy policy. Every watt and British thermal unit you don't burn, after all, is money in your pocket.

You could decide to keep the lights out after your (later) sunset and spend every evening by candlelight -- a romantic proposition and a good way to test whether you did remember to change the batteries on those smoke detectors -- but for more practical suggestions, I turned to Ronnie Kweller, spokeswoman for the Alliance to Save Energy ( http://www.ase.org/).

One easy idea: Let the sun shine in. "We do recommend that people keep their window treatments open during the day to let the solar warmth help heat their house," Kweller says. And speaking of light, the group says that replacing your five most-used incandescent light bulbs with Energy Star-rated compact fluorescent bulbs could save you as much as $60 a year in energy costs.

If you're looking to really make a difference, consider taking the alliance's "Six Degrees of Energy Efficiency Challenge" ( http://www.sixdegreechallenge.org/), which seeks to help consumers better understand how our energy use affects ourselves, our community and the world beyond. "Small steps by many people add up to a big difference," Kweller says.