When are we going to STOP the insanity that is the useless Daylight Savings Time?

I'm serious. It seems to do more harm than good:

Daylight Saving Time is hot garbage
End the madness!

When Benjamin Franklin proposed Daylight Saving Time — he invented it — it was a joke. These days, it's more like a practical joke we play on ourselves every single year. It's time to end this dumb prank once and for all.

[...]

Proponents of DST will tell you that it saves energy. This is because a study in the 1970s found a 1 percent benefit to energy use in Daylight Saving Time. You may notice, though, that the 1970s are now 40 years ago, and energy consumption has changed somewhat in the interim. More recent research shows no difference in energy usage in places where it doesn't go into effect, compared to places observing DST. A few studies suggest Daylight Saving Time actually means more energy is used, rather than less. Take, for example, this 2008 paper that looks at southern Indiana: DST actually increases electricity demand to the tune of $9 million a year in Indiana alone. [...]

The article goes on to describe the affects of sleep deprivation, and the spike in the number of car accidents and accidents at work that occur for six weeks after DST kicks in. There are many, many embedded links to support what she says; the author really did her homework. Read the whole thing for embedded links, the history of DST, Ben's joke, and more.
     

A Low-Cost Heating Alternative that uses New Convection Heating Technology

We closed off a porch on our house last year, and made it a kind of farm office/mud room/dog room (I keep a desk out there for managing farm-related stuff, I hang dirty overalls and boots there so I don't track mud in the house, and the dogs sleep out there at night). The room is very comfortable in the spring and summer months, but in fall and winter it gets quite cold.

We originally wanted to put a wood stove out there, but that proved prohibitive for a variety of reasons. I was going to get one of those kerosene heaters made for camping trips, when my sister told me about the solution she had used for the attic space in her house which she had converted into living space. The solution was electric heating panels by a company in Texas called Econo-Heat. They claim the panels only cost pennies to run. My sister claimed that they were indeed economical to run, and efficient too. I was a bit skeptical, but it sounded too good not to try so I ordered one.

Here is a description from their website:

[...] ECONO-HEAT electric space heater panels are the energy efficient, versatile and low-cost alternate heating solution to keeping warm in winter for a cheaper heat bill. The Econo-Heat electric heater operates mainly by heat convection. Designed to be left on for long periods of time, the ECONO-HEAT electric heater panel operates at relatively low surface temperatures, thereby giving a constant, gentle background heat whilst using very little electricity in any house / apartment room such as basement, wall, garage, office, or bathroom and locations such as any baseboard, desk, or wall. This concept is similar to a baseboard heater and performs the same task as central heating systems, however the ECONO-HEAT electric space heater is far less expensive to purchase, install and operate - keeping you comfortably warm, for a cheap alternate heating system!


NO FIRE RISK. Because the ECONO-HEAT electric heater panel has no exposed electric elements and there are no areas for dust to buildup, there is no fire or burn risk, giving you great peace of mind.

SAFE FOR CHILDREN AND PETS.. The surface temperature of the electric space heater panel does not exceed 165°F in normal operating conditions and there are no exposed elements, or fans to entangle hair, making them safe for children and pets. [...]

You can read the rest of the page for the full description. We've been using it for a while now, and haven't seen any significant increase in our electric bill. We bought two more panels, another for the back porch, and another for our RV. We got thermostats for them too, and they do the job quite well, we are really happy with the results.

If you are looking for an economical way to add heating to your living spaces, I would recommend trying the panels sold by Econo-Heat. You can read about the product and see it's specs, a photo and pricing here.

I give them a high recommendation, the panels are worth every penny.