DP3: Energy Conservation Progress

Since my last post, Brian and I have revised our plan of attack for this project. There was some concern that our previous ideas about using advertising to get consumers in contact with already existing energy tools was basically eliminating our role as designers from the issue. Now we are looking at making some engaging, easy-to-use tools for residential users to investigate and limit their power consumption. We have so far prototyped three ideas. The first is a fridge-magnet-sized display that shows a graphical representation of the target energy use, current use, and community demand (which correllates with the tiered cost system, showing the user when electricity is expensive and when it is cheaper). The second device is a hand-held power meter that tells the user how much power a device is using. It works by clamping around a power cord and measuring the inductance. The third device is a switch that would be mounted near the door to the house. The switch would communicate wirelessly with its associated plug devices and enable the user to turn off the TV and computer, for example, when leaving the house (in order to eliminate vampire power usage).

DP4: Energy Conservation

We are now into our fourth design project. This one is sponsored by PG&E and is centered around reducing energy use through behavior modifications, which are realistically the only method of energy reduction that can be effective in the very short term (next two years) to deal with the energy crisis. Our interim presentation is today, and I am a bit concerned about how our ideas will go over with the representatives from PG&E as well as our professor. After doing a lot of needfinding interviews and looking at what devices are currently available for home energy monitoring, we've concluded that a snazzy new interface for a smart meter is not really what is most needed right now. Instead, we're proposing that PG&E take the devices already available to monitor energy consumption (like the Vera system, for example, at www.micasaverde.com) and make then afordable and easy to access. The fact that these devices are not beautiful or perfect yet will not matter to the early adopters of home monitoring technology. There is a group of energy consumers that is quite concerned with their efficiency and very willing to try new technologies, like Peter who we interviewed. By enabling this small subset of consumers to try out these technologies NOW, instead of trying to develop the perfect energy interface first, PG&E can leverage the experiences and input of the initial users both in designing more targeted monitoring devices and in spreading personal stories from the early adopters to their larger consumer base in order to motivate the next wave of adopters.

A Few Cool Links

Just wanted to share these with y'all:

1) recycled-glass-bottle temple: http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/10/27/temple-of-a-million-bottles/

2) a design review website: http://www.notcot.org/

3) and a more techy-gadgety design review: http://www.oobject.com/

A shout-out to Kawika, Arran, and Alanna for their recommendations!

Kunga

Here is the video of our design solution for Humana's health and wellness project: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyytH_79CnM .

Hyejin was the actor, I was the puppeteer, and Andrew was the cameraman.