Q: How does BEACON handle Daylight Savings Time?
A: BEACON automatically adjusts to Daylight Savings Time. If your utility is in a timezone that observes Daylight Savings Time, the following occurs:
On the Monitor page Cards
Reads, Endpoint Install Dates, Previous/Next Comm. and Alert Banner timestamps indicate whether Standard Time or Daylight Savings Time was in effect when the event occurred. For example, utilities in the US/Central timezone will see timestamps labeled CST (Central Standard Time) or CDT (Central Daylight Time).
In the example below, Central Daylight Time (CDT) was in effect when the endpoint was installed, while Previous Comm. and Next Comm. occurred during Central Standard Time (CST).
In this Alert Banner, the Continuous Flow was detected on October 6, 2018 at 11:00 when Daylight Savings Time was in effect.
In the Consumption Graph
On the first day of Daylight Savings Time, at 1:59 a.m. the system clock springs forward one hour, creating a one-hour gap in the graph at 2 a.m.
In 2018, Daylight Savings Time began at 2 a.m. on March 11. Clocks jumped forward one hour. This is seen as a gap at 2 a.m., which can be seen in this graph for a meter with continuous flow. Despite appearances, no break in flow occurred. The system clock simply jumped ahead one hour to observe the start of Daylight Savings Time.
At the end of Daylight Savings Time, when clocks fall back one hour at 2 a.m., BEACON folds the extra hour onto the previous hour, adding the flow total of both hours in one bar of the graph at 2 a.m.
When Daylight Savings Time ends, clocks fall back one hour. In 2018, Daylight Savings Time ended at 2 a.m. on November 8. In the Consumption Graph above, notice the bar at 2 a.m. is twice as tall as the bars at 1 and 3 a.m. This is because BEACON combined the consumption for two hours to accommodate the extra hour in the last day of Daylight Savings Time.
In Data Exports
Data exported for a Date Range that spans the start of Daylight Savings Time skips the hour between 1:59 and 3:59 a.m.
In the Read_Time column in the example on the left, notice that the hour between 1:59 and 3:59 is skipped at the start of Daylight Savings Time, when clocks spring forward.
At the end of Daylight Savings Time when clocks fall back, the hour between 1:59 and 3:59 a.m. gets repeated. As a result, BEACON adds the consumption total from both hours and displays the total flow at 2:59 a.m. in the export Flow column (right). In the example on the left, notice that the flow total, 2.2, is nearly double that of the previous hour (1.2).
