Moldova joined the global community to mark Earth Hour on March 28. The organizers encourage the people to disconnect the household appliances, lighting devices and electrical installations during at least 60 minutes, from 8:30pm until 9:30pm today, IPN reports.

On the occasion of Earth Hour, the Ministry of the Environment will stage a number of activities on the pedestrian street of Chisinau. Starting with 5pm, there will be held a series of contests and concerts that will involve national singers. At 8:30pm, the lights will be turned off and there will be lit torches.

Those who support the initiative recommend efficiently using the electric power and unplugging the electrical devices when these are not needed because they use 10% to 60% of electricity when they are on standby. The volume of electricity consumed by some of the appliances on standby can be almost the same as when these work.

Energy saving lamps or with LEDs should be used in the home and the lights should be turned off when going out of the room. It was established that the consumption of classical lamps represents 15% of the electricity bills.

The electricity consumed by home appliances can be also saved by washing the laundry and dishes with economical programs and drying the laundry out, not using the washing machine’s dryer. It is also recommended thermally insulating the homes and offices because the buildings can lose enormous amounts of energy through warm air that goes out in winter and cold air that goes out in summer.