David Canton – for the London Free Press – February 17, 2007

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In 2007, daylight time starts the second Sunday in March instead of the first Sunday in April and ends the first Sunday in November, instead of the last Sunday in October.

This change may wreak havoc on systems and equipment. For homes, its more of a nuisance issue than anything, such as mis-timed answering machines or light timers, and VCR’s or PVR’s that may record at the wrong time.

It is more critical for business, especially where accurate time is necessary for things like financial transactions, security systems, travel schedules, and appointment calendars. Businesses should plan ahead to ensure a smooth transition, rather than leaving it to chance.

Daylight time has been in practice since the early 1900’s. The “spring ahead, fall back” trend is observed by most countries whose seasons change. The idea behind daylight time is that shifting an hour of daylight from early morning to evening reduces electricity consumption by better matching waking time with daylight hours.

The U.S. Government looked at the benefits of conserving energy and daylight time and decided to extend daylight time by four weeks. Canada decided to follow suit.

While many have been quick to recognize the potential benefit of energy conservation, many failed to recognize the potential Y2K-like problems that could occur with the technology we use in our home and businesses.

Equipment that tracks time often has intelligence embedded within to automatically change to and from daylight time. With the change the decisions will reflect the wrong time.

We often forget how much technology knows what time it is. Clocks and timers are obvious, but we can’t forget things like fax machines, photocopiers, security systems, and heating equipment.

Australia experienced a similar change to their daylight time when they had a temporary change during the XVIII Commonwealth Games to prevent reverting back to standard time. Businesses found their calendars and security logs off by one hour. Automatic transactions and events such as end of the day calculations and procedures that were to run at midnight did not occur at the correct time.

Steps to lessen the risk of mistiming include ensuring operating systems on computers are up to date with the latest updates or patches before March 11, and checking with vendors of critical systems to ensure they have been taken care of.

Check on the first day of daylight time to ensure the times are right on equipment that knows what time it is. Don’t forget to check again on the old change date to make sure nothing changes then by itself. And don’t forget to check again in the fall on both the old and new change dates.