Evaluation of the effect of daylight saving time on household lighting saving potential in six highly urbanised Chinese cities

ABSTRACT

(Double) Daylight Saving Time (DST/DDST) synchronizes human daily activities with sunlight hours, aiming to save energy. China implemented DST/DDST in 1986 and annulled it in 1991, which has not since been observed. This study aims to revisit the household lighting energy-saving potentials of DST/DDST implementation in six representative highly urbanized Chinese cities across different latitudes and within different climate zones, based on the electricity consumption behaviour of Chinese people in the 2020s. We constructed country-specific Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) analysis models interrelated with the local characteristic features of the DST/DDST in China, including latitude, age structure, industrial structure, get-up and bedtime schedules. The results showed the following: (1) Both DST and DDST can effectively reduce household lighting consumption in all the studied case cities, while DDST has a superior energy-saving potential; (2) Considering China-specific lifetime schedules, April to October is the most recommended duration for DST/DDST implementation; (3) Northern cities in China exhibit greater potential for energy savings in lighting than southern regions. (4) Cities with larger portions of primary industry have more household lighting-saving potential in China. Based on the obtained results, monthly data and separate statistical data on household lighting could help promote the precision of regression models.

KEYWORDS:

• Daylight saving time
• lighting saving
• regression model
• China
• lifetime schedule

Acknowledgement

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Xinyu Chen: Writing – Original Draft, Writing – Review & Editing, Methodology, Software, Data Curation; Jiashuo Wang: Writing – Original Draft, Writing – Review & Editing, Formal analysis; Visualization; Runqi Liang: Data Curation, Validation; Evangelos Mathas: Conceptualization; Isaac Yu-Fat Lun: Supervision, Conceptualization, Writing – Review & Editing, Project administration

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by University of Nottingham Ningbo China [grant number RESI202301004].