Storing hours and minutes into single byte?

[CuriousOne]

I'm doing a light controller timer. It has 16 channels, user can set up individual channel ON and OFF times, by inputting time in hours and minutes.

[towlerg]

@Amoque

Nor do I full understand why 6 minute samples are needed? There are 12 five minute segments in an hour; if it possible to represent the 12 hour positions in 4 bits, why can not the 12 five minute positions be represented similarly (in four bits)?

There are 24 hours in a day and 4 bits will only "do" 0-15.

George

[Dave]

I have to ask, Why are the byte constraints so important? Why not words? Are you that straped for eeprom space?