1 Million Women: The Women Power Project.

By TARA HUNT

Did you know?

If a million households saved 20% of the electricity they consume, it would remove the need for two small coal-fired power stations and save $240 million a year in energy bills.

1 Million Women is hosting a FREE WOMEN POWER SUMMIT in Sydney on the 30^th of October: empowering every woman to become an energy saving warrior. The following is just a snippet from the journey of one of our Women Power Pioneers. 

I’ve got a big confession to make, and I’m not the only guilty one…

My house uses five times more electricity than it should.

A few months ago I began an energy saving journey – on a mission to cut my household energy consumption down by 20%.  I’m one of ten women signed up to the Women Power Project, a pilot project by 1 Million Women. Our homes were fitted with a device allowing us to see our energy consumption in real time, a truly eye-opening and shocking experience.

I live with three plugged-in, energy guzzling teenagers and my husband who is always working on the computer. We are your average Australian family; we have all the mod cons and waste hundreds of dollars in electricity every year.

We aren’t the only ones. Australian households are paying millions of dollars a year for electricity they don’t need or use.

We rely on fossil fuels for most of our energy generation and the price of electricity keeps escalating – wasting and overusing electricity has become a critical budget and pollution issue for Australia.

Here’s the good news: IT’S EASY! I have found there really is no need to live a life in candlelight to have a more sustainable and cost effective lifestyle.

My family went from a house that uses 310 kwh (kilowatts per hour) a week, to just 140kwh a week. That is not only a significant monetary saving but also a huge environmental saving. Our house still has a long way to go on our energy efficiency journey; this is just the beginning, but through changing our habits and not our lifestyle we are making changes that will stay with us for a lifetime.

To really make a difference in my household we had to make sure everyone was on board. As a family we have learnt to turn off lights when no one is in the room, hang dry our washing and only use the dishwasher when it is really full. It isn’t hard, just common sense.

The biggest surprise on my journey was the importance of switching off appliances and electronics at power point when not in use. Turning off stand-by power (or vampire power as we now call it) consistently is enough to cut back most households’ energy consumption by 20% all on its own. It really is that easy.

Every little thing (even turning off a light) really does add up to something much bigger – saving you money and saving the environment.

Tara Hunt is joint CEO of the 1 Million Women movement and one of our Women Power Pioneers, working to empower women to fight dangerous climate change through controlling their energy consumption.

1 Million Women is hosting the FREE Women Power Summit at the Lower Sydney Town Hall on Wednesday the 30^th of October as the culmination of the 3-month Women Power Project. It’s an opportunity for all the women involved to share their stories, information and empower all women to be energy savers. Join us at the summit and learn how you can easily cut your energy consumption back by 20%. Click here to for your invitation: http://ow.ly/pOKgH. We can’t wait to see you there!