RESEARCH WHAT PEOPLE DID FOR ENERGY SAVING - Part 4

 http://www.energysavingcommunity.co.uk/
"Feeling still lacking of information in saving information, or having some questions that need some experts help out?" I've asked myself, then I found one of the biggest communities on energy saving, and it is from UK. It is a online news page rather than a social network or a forum, but they provide "real" useful information there. Up-to-date, the information is endless there. Even they have training classes, a service group to serve and answer questions about the energy problems, wow it is really cool. I really love the way it is organized, very professionally and effectively.

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As a usual online news page, you have the choice to share with people

RESEARCH WHAT PEOPLE DID FOR ENERGY SAVING - Part 3

Oh, I would say I research lots on google, but it the time I should look for something else out of google inc. Microsoft is another big boss also caring about saving energy. It still the beta stage and still has lots of limitation and works in the USA only, but I feel it is awesome and will be one of biggest service to help people think and do make some energy saving. MICROSOFT HOHM : http://www.microsoft-hohm.com/. Typing the household address there, and it will provide tons of information about how much energy your house did use and one of cool features is the rate on those consumption and hence compare with the average households' use. Yes, the idea is really cool, basically, people always like compliments, as it's through number, the grades/points or rates please people in many ways, somehow people really like to take some good point, even though they don't really know it is reliable or not, yes, is it kind of abstract but it works.
To talk a little bit more on the design of the page, the green is the main theme with the image of leaves, the feelings here are fresh, new and so clear. I presume they've done a very good job with the design here.

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One of cool features they have there

RESEARCH WHAT PEOPLE DID FOR ENERGY SAVING - Part 2

Another google-related product : http://www.google.com/green/ - a page with custom search and shown lots of information and news about saving energy as well as energy saving tips... The google research groups are really awesome, the research is deep with lots of usefull information. Furthermore, as always, the interface of google's products do impress me a lot, the simplicity plus colours combinations are perfect, clear and easy (this also is one of my inspiration for the interface of my project). Here are screen shot.

RESEARCH WHAT PEOPLE DID FOR ENERGY SAVING - Part 1

First of all, I tried to google it (I was pretty sure that there were lots of saving energy plans people managed to make), the highest priority from google was one of its in-sponsorship : www.blackle.com

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About blackle.com :

How is Blackle saving energy?

Blackle was created by Heap Media to remind us all of the need to take small steps in our everyday lives to save energy. Blackle searches are powered by Google Custom Search.
Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black. "Image displayed is primarily a function of the user's color settings and desktop graphics, as well as the color and size of open application windows; a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen." Roberson et al, 2002
In January 2007 a blog post titled Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year proposed the theory that a black version of the Google search engine would save a fair bit of energy due to the popularity of the search engine. Since then there has been skepticism about the significance of the energy savings that can be achieved and the cost in terms of readability of black web pages.
We believe that there is value in the concept because even if the energy savings are small, they all add up. Secondly we feel that seeing Blackle every time we load our web browser reminds us that we need to keep taking small steps to save energy.
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In summary, in the theory that the colour of black will somehow help people viualize and save very little energy, even for the monitor screen the black colour is shown as lesser energy-used. Therefore, bits by bits, it will help save up to 750mW/h a year.... wow impressive, indeed

SOME MORE TIPS

I found another page from New Zealand government saving energy plan : http://www.rightlight.govt.nz/
Here they showed lots of choices on types of bulbs to save much energy. Some screen shots here

 

And some tips from that page :

Use lamps to light work desks

Use table lamps or task lighting to light work desks rather than lighting the entire room.

Dispose of CFL bulbs correctly

If there are no CFL disposal facilities in your area, the dead bulb should be disposed of in the same way as any other light bulb ie. wrap it in newspaper and dispose with your household rubbish.

Turn lights off

The simplest way to save energy is to turn off lights when you're not using them.

Use CFLs in high-use areas

Use CFLs in light fittings that are turned on for more than 15 minutes at a time or several hours per day to maximise energy savings.

Replace lights to save

Replace incandescent lamps with CFLs or new generation halogen bulbs to save energy and money.

       Really lots of tips, some of them are old school-ed but some impressed me, I was like "Oh, really, I've just known those". Really interesting information

ENERGY SAVING TIPS

I found a link into a saving energy tips, it is kind of a advertisement of Persil washing powder, but what they did show is really interesting. Link : http://cleanerplanetplan.persil.co.nz/energy-saving-tips?gclid=CP3tgbG1vqsCFWNNpgod-Wkvrg
With some information how people used energy just for laundry only, I was impressed, we actually wasted lots of energy in just washing and drying our clothes !? Here are some good tips they have had there

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• Use Persil Small & Mighty – it delivers brilliant results even in cold water!
• Wash full loads in cold water – heating water for washing is one of the most energy-sapping activity in the laundry
• Hang washing on the line when possible. If you still want the softness from using a dryer, simply fluff towels and linens for only 5 minutes in the dryer after line-drying
• When you do use your dryer, clean out the lint filter after every load – it will run more efficiently

LECTURE 10

This week we went through quite a lot of inspirations again. Mrs. Blachnitzsky tried to provide us more and more how people did make the interface in excellent ways, hence I learned from that a lot.
The link is provided on the blog, so I don't really need to write my note here, I just F5 and watch some inspirations in that link over and over again, some of them I found are really interesting... ^^
Here the link : http://www.firstyeardesign.com/files/lecture10dsdn112.pdf

LECTURE 9

Today, Mrs. Blachnitzky gave us more information and inspirations. I took notes some.
PLUMEN - Energy Saving Bulb : the good design on lighting industry, they apply good technology on the bulbs so the way the energy flow inside will be saved much more.

And then we went through some interviews' great people :
 - Richard Saul Wurman
 - Chris Harrason with his inventions of Kinecticons : his icons are much more understandable and easy to use
 - TED's lecture with Aaron Koblin about Artfully visualizing our humanity : he was saying all the truth in a very interesting way, I was so impressed.
 - The last one Mrs. lecturer showed us is another TED's show : Fabion Hemmert - shape shifting.

I found that she updated this lecture on the blog. Here is the link :
http://www.firstyeardesign.com/files/lecture09_v2.pdf

In conclusion, this week's lecture gave me lots more inspiration to to change my initial ideas into much more interesting, and more understandable design of my own project

Edit : I almost forgot a very important part : the rules for the interface
1) Don't make users think, clear and easy
2) Information hierachy
3) Colour Coding
4) 3-clicks rule

BRAINSTORMING AGAIN

I got a bad grade for Part A. I thought my problem was I didn't put enough efforts into my works. So now, I decide to start once again, and I am going to "dig" deeply into much more research. Here I go, another brainstorm

I think this doesn't really relate to my idea I am doing right now, but somehow I find more ways to research more deeply into it.

LECTURE 8

Tutor Paul Stevenson come today to talk once again about the "TRING" project about helping people saving power. It was nothing really new, but somehow it is interesting to hear it one more time; last time Dr. Leon Gurevitch did talk about this project already, him and Kah Chang. They are still doing it, up to now about 8 months already, the whole design and idea are awesome, I am impressed a lot.