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).