Geographically Perth's location is not suited to daylight saving.
Of the capital cities of Australia, Sydney is the nearest to Perth in Latitude. The latter is just two degrees nearer to the Equator but this is where the simlarities cease. Perth's average maximum summer temperature is 6 degrees higher than Sydney's.
On 30th January the sun rose in Sydney at 6.14am and in Perth at 6.40am. This meant that Sydney received sunlight 26 minutes earlier than Perth(forget about the 2 hour difference). A factor contributing to this would be that in the east the sun rises over the sea but part of Perth is in the shadow of the Darling Ranges. Another contributing factor is longitude. WA time is based on 120 degrees East which is east of Southern Cross. With 4 minutes difference in time for every degree the sun rises at 120 degrees East approximately 16 minutes earlier than it does in Perth where the approximate longitude is 116 degrees East. These factors cause it to be darker for longer in the mornings in Perth than where our time is calculated. Eastern Standard Time is based on longitute 150 degrees East which is west of Sydney causing the reverse to happen.
In the evening a similar situation arises to compound the problem. On 30th January the sun set in Sydney at 8.02pm and in Perth at 8.20pm. So Perth had heat and light for an extra 18 minutes with the sun setting behind the mountains in Sydney and over the sea in Perth.
If global warming is a fact of life then daylight saving is going to present power supply problems for all Australian states. With workers arriving home earlier and turning on air conditioners, power use has increased. The 'Beat the Peak' program in WA was introduced only after the daylight saving trial commenced. With predicted increased power costs it would be better to retain normal daylight time so that employees finish work when it is cooler leaving employers to foot the bill for the extra hour of power use for air conditioning.
Most of our Asian trading nations are in the same time zone as WA so why put ourselves out of sinc with them?
Thursday, March 5, 2009
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