The countdown to summer is on as people are reminded to put their clocks forward an hour before going to bed tonight as daylight saving officially starts.

New Zealand daylight saving begins this Sunday, September 28, 2014, when clocks go forward an hour at 2am to become 3am.

People are being reminded to check their smoke alarms and put their clocks forward before going to bed tonight.

The extra hour of daylight in the evenings will run till Sunday, April 5, 2015, when clocks go back an hour at 3am to 2am.

The change to daylight saving is also a good time for residents to check their household emergency plans, survival kits and home smoke alarms.

New Zealand was one of the first countries in the world to officially adopt a nationally observed time standard.

New Zealand Mean Time, adopted on November 2, 1868, was set at 11 hours 30 minutes ahead of Greenwich Mean Time. Greenwich Mean Time was established by British Railways in the 1840s but was not made Great Britain's standard time until 1880.

Entomologist and astronomer George Hudson as the earliest known advocate of daylight saving in New Zealand.

Hudson presented a paper in Wellington in 1895 advocating for seasonal time adjustment.

The idea was ridiculed and it was not until 1909 when the issue was next raised by Hon. Sir Thomas Sidey who argued for putting clocks forward by an hour during summer do there would be an additional hour of daylight in the evenings.

A member's bill was put to parliament but rejected. Thomas kept putting his bill forward every year until it was adopted in 1927.

Over the years the bill has been revised with the latest revision in 2006 around the end of daylight saving generating much public debate.

A petition to extend daylight saving was presented to Parliament with an estimated 42,000 signatures.

The Minister of Internal Affairs Hon Rick Barker announced on April 30, 2007, that the period of daylight saving would be extended to run from the last Sunday in September until the first Sunday in April.