Today is November 1st, and normally it is the day when we would “fall back.” That is, we’d set our clocks back one hour to get into standard time instead of daylight saving time. It was supposed to make our lives easier, but it certainly didn’t work that way for me. I spent over an hour this morning trying to get all the clocks in the house set to the correct time.

For those who are also suffering from the same issue, or who find things that need adjusting later, here is the list of time change issues I’ve found so far:

• We have a dual-zone heating system with programmable thermostats. Those automatically changed their times this morning. To fix that, I had to find the installer’s manual (which is not the user’s manual) online. Once I had that, I could follow the complex buttons and menus to tell it to turn off all automatic DST changes. Then I could reset the time, and everything appears fine. But in this case those menus are highly opaque. In particular, I had to change setting 1415 from 1 to 0. Yes, really.
  
• We also have some floor heating, and those programmable thermostats also automatically adjusted for DST. But those were simpler to adjust because DST could be turned off right from the regular menu. Once that was off and the time set, things were fine.
  
• We also have three different atomic clocks, all of different ages and designs.
  • One required a particular set of buttons to turn off DST changes, but to get it to say the right time, it had to be told it was in the Pacific Time Zone. (That’s wrong… it should be in the Mountain Time Zone, but that is what had to happen. Go figure.) To get this done, I had to find the manual for this clock online, as the button combination needed was not obvious.
    
  • The second required a different set of button presses to accomplish exactly the same thing: turn off DST changes and put in Mountain Time. Again, that’s not right, but the clock now says the right time. This also required an online manual search.
    
  • The third is an old atomic analogue clock, and there is no way to turn off automatic DST changes. All I could do was set it to be in the Mountain Time Zone, to get it to read correctly. At least that makes sense, unlike the other two. This clock’s manual was impossible to find online. The manufacturer (Sharp) didn’t even put a model number on the device, and no searches I did provided any hints. I struggled with this one for a while because there are two tiny, recessed buttons on the back of this clock that are unmarked. One must be a reset button, but the other? Who knows. I gave up trying to figure it out.
    
• Then we have a Windows computer, which, when it was set up years ago, was told it was in PST, and therefore it adjusted this morning. I had to go into the settings and change its timezone to “Pacific Time (British Columbia)” and the time adjusted correctly. Your computer may have done the same thing. If so, check the timezone in settings and change it if needed.
  
• Our cell phones did not change the time (correctly) all by themselves. That was good, but I’ve read that some older phones may have trouble. If your phone adjusted the clock and is now off by an hour, it’s time to visit the settings app and look for where and how to either change the time or turn off DST changes completely.
  
• Happily, the clocks on our appliances are all dumb and don’t automatically adjust, but if you have a new smart appliance that you’ve connected to the internet, I suppose it might have done so. Good luck with those! Find your manuals or search for them online by brand and model number.
  
• Our car is also old and has a dumb clock, which is great in this case. Those of you driving newer, well-connected cars might want to check the clocks in them. I have no advice to give on how well they will or won’t handle the time change, but if you’re like me, you should figure it out sooner rather than later. Each year I inevitably find myself in the car, looking at the clock, and thinking I am an hour late (or early) for some event because the clock didn’t get adjusted!

Did you have any other clock trouble this morning? If so, please send a note to webmaster@blueridgeca.org with any advice you can add to the above.