Sunday, November 5, 2017, at 2:00 a.m., marks the end of Daylight Saving Time, and the beginning of Daylight Standard Time. Be sure to move your clocks back one hour before going to bed on Saturday night so you wake up in the correct time zone!
While moving clocks back one hour, it is also a good time to check the batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide (CO) detectors. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend having working smoke detectors on each level of your home and outside each bedroom and other sleeping areas. Working smoke detectors increase your odds of surviving one of the more than 366,000 home fires each year causing over 2,300 deaths annually in the United States.
CO detectors, although not nearly as common in U.S. households as fire detectors, play just as crucial a role in home safety as fire detectors. Carbon monoxide is called the “silent killer”; you can be overcome quickly because it has no smell and can only be detected by a CO detector.
To ensure they are working properly, batteries in smoke and CO detectors should be changed every six months so get into the habit of changing detector batteries at the same time you are moving clocks back one hour. It’s an easy reminder that could save your life and the lives of those you love.
Daylight Saving Time begins again at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, March 11, 2018.
Remember this trick: Fall back; Spring forward, just in case you forget which way to move your clock when the time change comes.