Daylight Saving Time... Spring Forward... Fall Back... You know the drill.
Twice a year many of us must manually adjust all the clocks in the home, office, etc. We won't get into the relevance, benefits, or drawbacks of this practice. There's another place somewhere on the internet for that. Our question... Have you ever forgotten to change your clocks only, only to find out you're now early or, even worse, late for everything! It's hard to make the adjustment, but forgetting adds insult to injury.
Why not let the M1 remind you every year to adjust the clocks for daylight savings time? All of your customers will want this feature! This article will cover examples of how to program the system to give these reminders.
Spring Forward
Daylight savings time begins on the second Sunday in March. The rule below will announce “Adjust Time Tonight” and display “Set Clocks Ahead 1 Hour” on the keypad every 2 hours after 5:00pm on the Saturday before daylight savings time begins.
WHENEVER EVERY 2 HOURS
AND TIME OF DAY IS LATER THAN 5:00PM
AND THE MONTH IS March
AND THE DAY(S) OF THE WEEK IS/ARE ------S
AND THE DAY OF THE MONTH IS LATER THAN 6
AND THE DAY OF THE MONTH IS EARLIER THAN 14
THEN ANNOUNCE Miscellaneous 2 (vm240)
THEN DISPLAY “Set Clocks Ahead 1 Hour” IN Area 1 (Area1) INDEFINITELY, [*] CLEARS
Fall Back
Daylight savings time ends on the first Sunday in November. The rule below will announce “Adjust Time Tonight” and display “Set Clocks Back 1 Hour” on the keypad every 2 hours after 5:00pm Saturday before daylight savings time ends.
WHENEVER EVERY 2 HOURS
AND TIME OF DAY IS LATER THAN 5:00PM
AND THE MONTH IS November
AND THE DAY(S) OF THE WEEK IS/ARE ------S
AND THE DAY OF THE MONTH IS EARLIER THAN 7
THEN ANNOUNCE Miscellaneous 2 (vm240)
THEN DISPLAY “Set Clocks Back 1 Hour” IN Area 1 (Area1) INDEFINITELY, [*] CLEARS
When writing rules based on dates that do not fall on the same day every year, it is important to consider any scenario that may prevent the rule from working the way you intend, every year. For example, the rule above will not give the reminders if the first Sunday in November also happens to be the first day of November. This would mean that Saturday before would fall on October 31. To account for this possibility an additional rule will be needed.
WHENEVER EVERY 2 HOURS
AND TIME OF DAY IS LATER THAN 5:00PM
AND THE MONTH IS October
AND THE DAY(S) OF THE WEEK IS/ARE ------S
AND THE DAY OF THE MONTH IS 31
THEN ANNOUNCE Miscellaneous 2 (vm240)
THEN DISPLAY “Set Clocks Back 1 Hour” IN Area 1 (Area1) INDEFINITELY, [*] CLEARS