Summer time in Belgium and the Netherlands: Now five hours time difference with Thailand
The clocks in Belgium and the Netherlands were set forward one hour last night. As a result, the night will be one hour shorter, but from now on it will remain light an hour longer in the evening. On the other hand, it gets light an hour later in the morning. The time difference with Thailand is now also one hour less and is 5 hours.
Summer time applies in all countries of the European Union and also in most other European countries. In total, about seventy countries will start summer time, although not everywhere this weekend. In the United States, for example, clocks went forward an hour on March 8.
The Netherlands has been using summer time since 1977, and before that between 1916 and 1945. Changing the time should save energy. Because it stays light longer in the evening, we don't turn on the lights for as long. In 1977, the House of Representatives also hoped that the recreation sector would receive a boost.
Belgium
Summer and winter time have been applied in Belgium since 1977. The main reason for this was to save energy: thanks to summer time, people can benefit from daylight for longer in the evening, so no electric light is needed. But that reason for saving has become less and less important over the years.
Opponents point to the disruption of the biorhythm, which some people suffer from. According to the Vias Institute, there are also more accidents on Flemish roads in the first week after the switch to summer time because there is less light in the morning.
After the summer, people would like to decide to definitively switch to winter time. 'Summertime' would be a thing of the past…
Although I now live in Thailand, I would find it a shame if summer time disappeared. This is of course a personal opinion, both systems have their advantages and disadvantages, but the longer days in the summer gave us the opportunity to take advantage of the beautiful summer evenings after working hours.
Here in Thailand we do not have this problem ... from 18 pm it is always dark here with all the dangerous situations that entails ...
The summer hour remains a totally unnatural given. Winter time is already 1 hour ahead of the sun. Going to bed at 22:30 pm with the sun still shining in your eyes has always felt like human manipulation of nature. And yes in Thailand we don't have that problem and yet people here also sit outside until midnight. I wonder why it is not possible in Belgium to light some lights on the terraces from 21 pm? There is electricity in Europe, isn't it? Isn't it possible to take advantage of the summer so that it would be dark a little earlier ??
The whole life consists of manipulation and I think the idea was precisely to save energy with the advantage that bon vivants can also make an extra contribution to the economy in the evening. Life does not only consist of work according to the 9-5 principle I hope.
Rutte said in the Netherlands, we Dutch people are all improving!!
Even if it's only an hour
In 1977 there were no LED lights yet and the regular lights (except for the LT tubes) consumed power. Nowadays people sometimes leave the lights on all night long in the garden or somewhere in the house. Therefore, I think that the reason to save power with it no longer applies.
As for my personal preference: I like it the way it is here in Thailand. But I usually go to bed between 9 and 4:XNUMX and get up around XNUMX in the morning.
When I was still living in the Netherlands, I also worked as a steward and lived with many time differences. Everywhere in the world I went, it was dark by 9 p.m.—except for those times when I was in Alaska and there was still sunlight around midnight.
I liked it when it was dark around 9pm. I never liked watching TV in daylight. Then I had to make the room dark in the Netherlands to enjoy a movie.
It's just more fun when it's dark. A very different world. And especially in the summer when it can still be warm, it is nice with all the lighting outside.
Since I no longer intend to move to the Netherlands, I don't care whether summer or winter time, but if I still live there, summer time can be abolished for me.