Energy Conscious

smartswitch

Here’s an idea how about every time you go to turn on the light, just by using the switch you will know- A: relatively how expensive your energy usage is, B: how much energy you and your entire neighborhood is using at that moment.

No, you don’t need a little led readout, you don’t need to do math, or worry about stats, you will simply by using this switch know. The same way you know where your arms are when your eyes are closed, the same way you have a general sense of which gear your car is in just by touching the stick.

How does the SmartSwitch do this? Easy. It simply makes it a little bit harder to turn on the light the more energy is in use at the moment. You go to turn on the light, there is a little bit of resistance, you think to yourself: “Do I really need this light right now?” and then you either turn it on anyway or you leave it off, “no not right now.”

Greener Gadgets Design competition
SmartSwitch Peter Russo & Brendan Wypich
Stanford University 2009
more info