Ten Sydney women have joined forces to make savings on their energy bills that would be enough to power four average family homes for a week.

Many of the women exceeded their 20 per cent target and reduced their energy usage by more than half, providing them with significant financial savings in the lead up to Christmas.
The three-month Women Power pilot was made possible by a City of Sydney environmental grant to 1 Million Women, an organisation of women taking action on climate change by changing the way they live.

Katie McSweeney, who lives in the inner west, said her journey as a power woman was educational and enlightening and she is reaping the rewards of reduced power bills. “I really started paying attention to my power usage patterns, which allowed me to identify simple ways to cut my energy consumption,” Ms McSweeney said.

“My technology-loving partner has dozens of chargers and appliances around the house. By switching them off when not in use, I was really able to cut energy consumption.” 

Ms McSweeney cut her energy consumption by 41 per cent, doubling the target set for her by 1 Million Women and said she was surprised at the significant difference achieved through simple measures.”Most of my energy consumption came from my hot water heating and charging of electronic appliances such as tablets, laptops and phones.”I was able to cut down my energy consumption dramatically by turning them off as well as turning off unnecessary lights and taking short showers. My power bills are now down to about $12 a week from $21 which is a fantastic result.”

Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the pilot was a great example of women harnessing their economic power to make smart choices and save energy and power bills.”Everyone can play a part in saving energy and taking small steps to introduce energy and water saving measures at home can make a real difference to our environment.

“MW Founder Natalie Isaacs said the pilot was a fun and rewarding way to show householders across Australia that it’s easy to significantly reduce energy usage. “Our Women Power pilot shows that big, bold energy saving targets and behaviour change are attainable,” Ms Isaacs said.

“We challenged our ten participants to save 20 per cent of their home electricity use, and they responded by absolutely smashing the target with an average saving level of nearly half their electricity use.”
“If a million women in a million households all cut 20 per cent of their home electricity consumption, we could collectively save at least $240 million a year and remove the need for two small coal-fired power stations.”

The collective rate of savings by the 10 participants during the measurement phase of the pilot was enough to provide electricity for a further four family homes.