Americans braced on Saturday for an early change of clocks to daylight saving time, with experts expecting some confusion that could spill over into the working week.
Daylight, or summer time, began overnight on Saturday, instead of the first weekend of April, as has been customary for decades.
While some warn about havoc in scheduling and computer systems, reminiscent of the Y2K glitch when the year 1999 turned to 2000, others pointed out that the early switch is designed to reap benefits in energy savings.
Representatives Edward Markey and Fred Upton, who sponsored the amendment to the 2005 Energy Bill requiring the change, said it was expected by 2020 to save US$4.4 billion in energy bills and avoid the need to build more than three large electric power plants.
They said it also would save 7.9 billion cubic meters of natural gas, and avoid nearly 10.8 million tonnes of carbon emissions because people consume less electricity in the evening if it is still light.
"The change in the beginning of daylight saving time is just one step towards making our country more efficient in its usage of energy and conscious of our environment," Markey said on Wednesday.
"Not only will Americans have more daylight at their disposal for four additional weeks in the year, but we will also see wide energy saving, less crime, fewer traffic fatalities, more recreation time and increased economic activity. Ultimately, daylight saving just brings a smile to everybody's faces," he said.
Others are not smiling. They say businesses have been slow in updating critical computer systems and fear it might lead to inaccurate times for financial transactions, potential delays in airline flights and other headaches.
As well, brokerages might execute automatic stock trades at the wrong hour and BlackBerry users could find their handsets out of sync with their calendars, causing missed appointments.
"We fear that some high-risk organizations are not well prepared," said Andy Kyte, research vice president at the consulting firm Gartner Inc.
"This is not [year 2000] Y2K-scale, but it could generate business procedure and IT system problems that modestly disrupt smooth business operations, irritate customers and tarnish reputations," he said.
Unlike the year 2000 bug, which generated wide publicity and prompted considerable upgrades, this change has gone relatively unnoticed. But because the US change comes at a different time from those in Europe and elsewhere, it has the potential to create some problems.
At least one precedent suggests the change will not be catastrophic. In August 2000, parts of Australia shifted to daylight-saving time two months early to provide more daylight for the Sydney Summer Olympics. The only fallout was a torrent of missed appointments because electronic calendars were off.
Gartner said multinational organizations or those with customers and suppliers inside and outside the US face a "significant risk of continuous minor irritations and glitches that will negatively impact IT and business efficiency."
Computers using Windows XP SP2 and Apple's OS-X operating systems should handle the time change smoothly as long as users download regular system updates.
John Challenger of the consulting firm Challenger Gray and Christmas said any problems could spill over to today, with a bleary-eyed workforce struggling with one less hour of rest. He said productivity may be down as much as 30 percent today.
"Not only will this catch many Americans off guard in terms of their sleep habits, but information technology experts are predicting some computer glitches related to the early shift," Challenger said. "The glitches are not expected to be major, but they could be enough to slow the pace of work on Monday."
Some say the surprise may hurt an already sleep-deprived public.
"Millions of Americans already do not get the sleep they need," said Richard Gelula of the National Sleep Foundation, urging people to set aside time for nine hours of sleep.
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