EXTENDED DAYLIGHT TIME COULD BE A-CHANGIN' IN SENATE.

Byline: Lisa M. Sodders and Brent Hopkins Staff Writers

Cranky schoolchildren, electronic chaos and increased sales of double espressos - those are just some of the effects that would ripple through Americans' lives under a plan moving through Congress to extend daylight-saving time by two months a year.

Under the plan that was approved by the House of Representatives and sent to the Senate, California and other states would ``spring forward'' in March rather than April and ``fall back'' in November rather than October.

``It's gonna be chaos, man,'' said Viken Fermanian, owner of Salco Services, an electronics repair shop in Granada Hills, predicting there would be no easy fix to the daylight-saving time change hard-wired into everything from wristwatches to VCRs.

While computer software can be reprogrammed to accommodate different dates, hardware presents a trickier problem.

``The worst thing that'll happen is (the device will) change the time for you, but it'll be the wrong time. If Congress changes the date, you'll get every electronics manufacturer scrambling to change their processors,'' he said.

But supporters of the plan - tucked into a sweeping federal energy bill approved by the House this week - note that any drawbacks would be outweighed by the energy savings provided by maximizing daylight hours.

``It's the most painless way to save any energy at all, and it has some other advantages: It reduces crime and traffic accidents,'' said Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks.

Sherman and other supporters cite Department of Transportation studies from the mid-1970s that found such a move could save the equivalent of 100,000 barrels of oil each day that daylight-saving time is extended.

Those studies also note a potential drop in traffic fatalities and crime, although officials have noted that dramatic changes in lifestyle and commerce since the studies were completed make it difficult to make direct extrapolations to today's world.

Still, supporters also answer critics - including parents who worry about the safety of children who will go to school before dawn - by saying the proposal, which still needs Senate approval, doesn't extend the time change to the darkest months of the year.

But safety isn't the only issue that parents and educators worry about.

``Kids - especially in the transitional period of adolescence, when their hormones are raging, are incapable of being morning people,'' said Scott M. Folsom, president-elect of the Los Angeles 10th District PTA and the father of a 13-year-old daughter.

``They're also terminally unpleasant ... If I was a teacher, I wouldn't want to deal with one in the dark. Imagine how the poor bus drivers would feel.''

But Sherman and others say schools could adjust their schedules to start later in the day.

But no matter what, said Nancy Delgado, assistant principal at Canoga Park High School, ``Every time you change a child's schedule, it upsets them. Kids need routine.''

A time change isn't a picnic for adults, either.

Dr. Joseph Haraszti, medical director of Las Encinas Hospital in Pasadena, said it takes people at least three weeks to adjust to any time shift.

``I think we would see greater incidences of depression, more absenteeism at work, and people would be less effective at work,'' Haraszti said. ``There would be all kinds of economic fallout. The artificial adjustment really doesn't work that well.''

Rocky Rhodes, owner of Rocky Roaster, an independent coffee-roasting company in Canoga Park, thinks more hours of morning darkness would probably be good for coffee sales.

Without sunshine to help sleepyheads wake up, adults could seek an alternative artificial boost from an extra-large latte.

Still, he said, sales would suffer in the short run. ``Any time there's a time change, either forward or backward, it throws people's schedules off.''

And while that could simply seem as annoying as the wrong time flashing on a VCR clock, electronics experts say a bigger problem could arise for businesses when some clocks start switching to the new daylight-saving time, while others keep the old schedule.

Computer networks that limit access to certain hours get confused, time stamps record the wrong hour and software and hardware begin to conflict.

With tiny computers running so many aspects of everyday life, even a seemingly harmless adjustment suddenly begins to manifest itself in myriad unintended ways.

``Your watch is hard-coded, so you can't tell it, hey, by the way, we changed daylight-saving time on it,'' said Michael Wacht, president of Neutrino Consulting, a Los Angeles-based computer repair company. ``Is this some Y2K, destroy-the-world kind of thing? Probably not, but you're going to have to change a lot of things around.''

Staff Writer Lisa Friedman contributed to this report.

Lisa Sodders, [phone]

lisa.sodders(at)dailynews.com

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EXTENDED DAYLIGHT

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