In the night Between Saturday 29 March and Sunday 30 March 2025 The legal time will return to Italy again, like every year in the last weekend of March. To 2:00 in the morning On Sunday the hands will postpone one hour. The most evident consequence of the hourly movement will be to have an hour more than light in the late afternoon, since the sunset of the sun will fall an hour later Compared to before. This shift promises potential saving On the electric bill thanks to the greater availability of natural light, however, we will have to give up sixty minutes of sleep in the night between Saturday and Sunday. The digital devices connected to the Internet will update the hours independently, while analog ones will require manual intervention. Legal hours will accompany us to Sunday 26 October 2025when the sunny hour will be restored by moving the hands back from 3:00 in the morning to 2:00.
Because you move on to the legal hour: energy savings
The main reason at the basis of the adoption of legal hour lies in its proven ability to generate a significant energy savingmainly because the need to resort to electric lighting at the end of the day. Second Triadthe manager of the National Transmission Network, in 2024 the legal time led to a saving of 340 million kWh. In economic terms, it is 75 million euros spared nationally in the 7 months of legal hours.
Less energy consumption also involves one reduction of co emissions2 In the atmosphere. Always according to the data collected by Terna, in 2024 they were 160 000 tons carbon dioxide did not emit in the atmosphere thanks to the transition to legal hour.
These are not virtuous data relating only to last year, but are part of a significant trend even if they look at a wider time horizon. Taking into consideration the period From 2004 to 2024for example, Terna esteem 11.7 billion kWh And 2.2 billion euros saved thanks to the legal hour.
At what point is the debate on legal hour all year round
The alternation between legal and solar time now has advantages and disadvantages and for this different countries have very different opinions even about it. For example, in recent years there has been a lot of talk in Italy to establish thelegal time all year roundtherefore without changes of time twice a year. According to the advocates of this solution, the introduction of the single stable time would have a further advantage a Positive health effect As it would avoid the two “mini jet lag” per year that cause many people related to the sleep-wake cycle due to the temporary alteration of the circadian rhythm.
However, the question has been stalled for several years and in fact it can be considered abandoned, at least until the near future. In the 2018 In fact, the European Parliament asked the European Commission to evaluate the abolition of the alternation of time, an option that the following year was actually voted favorably. The directive though has never entered into forcefirst due to the health emergency due to the Covid-19 pandemic, then for a substantial one Inability to find an agreement nationally on the best way to set up an annual single hours.
