Living in Crete :: Earth Hour 2009 Video In Chania

In Earth Hour 2009, the lights were switched off in many households in Chania, Western Crete on March 28, between the designated hour of 2030hrs to 2130hrs, with citizens both Greeks, Cretans along with British, Irish and other expats who showed their symbolic support to save energy.

The Crete Astronomy Friends Club in Chania documented the event as witnessed by BritsinCrete friends in the area. The CAFC club documented the event using a Sony video camera in two modes. The first using the CMOS of the video camera and the second using the infrared receiver which gave much better detail of the city lights. The club also measured light pollution using an Unihedron, Sky Quality Meter (SQM-L) which recorded a difference of 1 mag (from 18.82 to 20.01 Mag/arcsec2.

The state electricity company known as DEH reported a drop of 10% in kilowatt hour consumption for the hour between 20:30 to 21:30 for the city of Chania. DEH also reported that there was an average 3% drop in kWh consumption cross the the whole island of Crete during that time.

The 5 minute video below by the Crete Astronomy Friends Club has a short introduction in Greek, followed by a panoramic look at the lights across Chania with haunting music.

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The BritsinCrete Forum through its Events-Calendar page supported Earth Hour with advanced promotion and will be doing so again in 2010. Earth Hour 2010 will be on March 27, the designated date next year.