What is EDT?
EDT stands for Eastern Daylight Time. It refers to the time zone which is 4 hours behind UTC or Coordinated Universal Time. This time zone applies to the eastern parts or states of North American countries, particularly the United States and Canada. In some records, EDT is referred to as the Eastern Daylight-Savings Time, referring to the mandatory system of “saving” time during a particular period in a year by advancing the time to one hour early.

EDT is particularly used during the summer months in the eastern part of the North American continent. In the US, the affected eastern states are Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware, Georgia, parts of Indiana, District of Columbia, parts of Florida, parts of Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, parts of Michigan, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Rhode Island, Ohio, parts of Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia.

The concept of daylight savings time does not apply only to eastern states but is applicable to all states of the US, which has four time zones for the mainland. DST was observed since 1895 with the purpose of taking advantage of the extra daylight during the summer months. And by maximizing the light from the sun, energy and power is said to be conserved. But even in the past, not all people approved of the idea of moving the standard time to one hour early on specific periods of the year. Many argued that this scheme only benefited some industries like the retail companies. Others complain that changes in time zones only resulted to disruptions in travel, record keeping, medical equipment, business meetings, and sleep patterns.

Today, EDT is observed in the US during spring, the entire summer, and up to about mid-autumn. After which, Eastern Time (ET) or Eastern Standard Time (EST) is observed in the winter months. By 2007, a standard schedule is followed across the US and Canada in adjusting clocks for specific time zones. For the eastern section, EDT starts at 3AM (from EST of 2AM) on the second Sunday of March. It ends on the first Sunday of November at 2AM EDT, which is changed to 1AM EST.