The importance of Daylight Savings Time for energy savings in Belgrade latitude and climate

Abstract

The idea of Daylight Saving Time (DST) was introduced before electrification era in order to prolong diurnal use of daylight during summer. DST has been imposed in European legislation since year 2000, but the legislation left open a back door for its suspension if the overall effect did not show positive results. During past decade it has been debated very often about effects of DST. Although many studies have concluded that DST has positive effect on energy savings in buildings in middle latitudes, there are still arguments that DST is causing loses in other areas of economy. Many literature surveys have concluded that positive effect of DST on energy consumption in buildings is very small and highly dependable on latitude. This paper investigates how the application of DST in Belgrade climate and latitude influences the change of energy demand in highly glazed office spaces. Office buildings are used for work mainly during daytime, so it might be assumed that the influence of clock shift during summer period has high potential for change in utilisation of environmental energy resources.