wotz
WINNER: Student Award – Grand Prize
wotz a kiloWatt? Let your data do the talking...
wotz a kiloWatt? Let your data do the talking...
Comments for this submission are closed. View the software in DavidKirkby's portfolio to continue the conversation.
7 comments
David Kirkby • about 14 years ago
We welcome your feedback.
Please visit the wotz community at http://www.facebook.com/wotzapp and let us know what you like and how we can improve.
James Morehead • about 14 years ago
In the world of mobile phones, device manufacturers have figured out that optimizing the power consumed is more important (and more actionable) than increasing the power of the battery. The same needs to happen in homes - how can we fundamentally reduce power consumption? Love how this app makes education fun.
Sheila Tsau • about 14 years ago
Great job! I agree with James M. that your Wotz app can help consumers understand how to optimize their home energy usage by providing more detailed data and better temporal resolution than what is currently available (via monthly energy statements, etc.). The app is visually appealing and seems simple to use/navigate. I made a long comment on your facebook page, just some ideas that hopefully you'll find helpful. I love that you are trying to make education about energy usage fun and accessible for consumers. Keep up the good work!
David Kirkby • about 14 years ago
James - thanks for the feedback. That's an interesting analogy with mobile power management. An important difference here is that consumer behavior plays an essential role in conservation, so its no longer "just" an engineering design problem. Given that the data available today is quite limited (a single building-total per hour), our goal with this first prototype is to help consumers become familiar with their overall "energy landscape" and start thinking about how their actions are shaping it each day. We are also trying to de-mystify the "kWh" by expressing electrical energy use in more familiar terms such as food energy or gasoline.
David Kirkby • about 14 years ago
Sheila - thanks for the thoughtful analysis and suggestions! We will follow up with you at http://www.facebook.com/wotzapp
Lisette Stamsnijder • about 14 years ago
Hi!
Great app!
I am working for the Dutch energy company Essent, part of the European energy company RWE, and this summer we are going to start a pilot; where developers are challenged to build an app for the smart meter, and we will invite 250 customers to test it.
Cool thing is that our smart meter give an update every 10 seconds, instead of every hour.
There will be some nice cash prices for the developers, and ofcourse we have the intention to bring the winning app on the market.
We expact to start the pilot within a few weeks. I think this app is perfect for our customers. So if you are interested: please subscribe for the pilot at: www.essent.nl/co-creation
And we will keep you informed!
David Anderson • about 14 years ago
I think the gamification aspect of this app is very useful and strikes at the key difficulty in making these apps accessible: intuitiveness. Great job. Don't know how far the commercial component of this has been developed, but one suggestion for that would be to add a feature/game that helps translate savings into terms like "number of computers turned off at night" and allows them to give tenants monthly scorecards reflecting how "Turning off x computers on average can save y percent" on energy.