Energy Prompter

Problem Area:

Allowing residential occupants a way to save energy in manner that interfaces with their natural daily interactions with their home environment. Our users are homeowners who want to save energy, but often forget or don't know how to do so. They need a interface which integrates with actions they do regardless of their awareness of the home's current energy use as well as provides motivating feedback to save energy. 

Home Environmental Factors:

Our interface interfaces with existing motions the user makes at two crucial energy savings moments:

• ·       Closing the door when leaving
• ·       Turning the bedroom lights off when going to sleep

Our Design Sketches:

Sketch 1:  When the user opens the door while leaving the house a sensor activates when the door reaches 30 degrees and sends a signal to the thermostat LCD interface attached to the door asking whether the user would like to set their home temperature to “energy saving” mode. 

Sketch 2: When the user turns off the lights to go to sleep a photosensor is activated by the change of light (to off) and a LCD interfaces lights up and asks the user whether they would like to set their temperature to “energy savings” mode while sleeping.

Sketch 3: The interface is shown in greater detail with ambient LCD lights that light up based on effectiveness of energy savings in the current settings.  If the user sees a row of red lights as they close the door or turn off their bedroom light it will remind them to change to energy savings mode.