Daylight saving time in Rhode Island: When to turn back the clocks in 2024

RHODE ISLAND — From now until Sunday, Nov. 3, when Daylight Saving Time ends, we will lose nearly three minutes of daylight per day in Rhode Island — and beyond as winter approaches.

With the end of Daylight Saving Time on November 3rd, we move the clocks back one hour and return to a time in Rhode Island when the sun sets around 4:36 p.m. Until the winter solstice on December 21st, we will only have nine hours, eight minutes and seven seconds of daylight.

Once we return to standard time, sunrises and sunsets will be an hour earlier.

First implemented more than a century ago with the Standard Time Act of 1918, the original idea behind daylight saving time was to save energy by adding more daylight hours to work shifts.

How effective summer time is as an energy saving measure is controversial. A 2008 Department of Energy study found that DST saved the country nearly a billion kilowatt hours of electricity. However, a 2018 meta-analysis of 44 studies found only a meager 0.34 percent decrease in energy consumption. A 2011 study in Indiana, which has a complicated and messy history with daylight saving time, found that slightly more energy is used during daylight saving time.

Daylight saving time is also complicated in Arizona, as it was no longer observed in 1968 due to the energy demands of a hot desert climate. Shifting an hour of daylight from the morning to the end of the day, when temperatures are typically hottest, results in more air conditioning usage, not less.

However, the Navajo Nation in the northeast of the state observes daylight saving time. That is not the case with the Hopi Nation that surrounds it.

The only other state that does not observe daylight saving time is Hawaii, where this is a moot point. Due to the tropical state's proximity to the equator, day length and temperatures in Hawaii remain fairly constant throughout the year.

Legislation to establish year-round daylight saving time, passed in the Senate two years ago, briefly raised the hopes of some Americans who want to forego the twice-yearly ritual of changing clocks, but did not make it out of committee in the House of Representatives, where some lawmakers favored year-round standard time .

A YouGov poll last year found that Americans are hopelessly divided over whether to keep Daylight Saving Time year-round, abandon it in favor of the time colloquially known as “God's Time,” or continue jumping back and forth.

The opinion poll conducted at the beginning of March after the start of daylight saving time showed that 62 percent of people would like to forego the ritual. Of these, 50 percent wanted to introduce summer time permanently and 31 percent preferred permanent standard time.