I am sure that you are all well aware of seriousness of global warming. Then, do you know that plugs you plugged in unconsciously speed up global warming? Even when a plug of an unused electronic appliance is plugged in, electricity is continuously being consumed. This electric energy wasted by only plugging in plug is called ‘Standby Energy.’ Standby energy takes up 11% of the total electricity usage. The amount of CO2 generated to produce this 11% of electricity is 169,000,000 ton annually. In order to reduce this amount of CO2, we have to eliminate 42,400,000 passenger cars. Our goal is to reduce the enormous amount of CO2, which is the culprit of global warming through this project.
Your car is parked in a parking lot with its engine on. What would you do? There are many plugs of unused electronic appliances plugged in. What would you do about it? For us, stop a car engine is natural, but unplugging a plug is not that natural thing. We looked into this issue from designer’s perspective in order to reduce emission of CO2, the culprit of global warming. We made a proposition that can change people’s awareness and behaviors for them to reduce electricity usage, and unplug plugs of unused electronic appliances.
First is to make electricity use into prepayment. We are to change awareness of electricity use itself through Electricity Prepay-card System. Just like buying gas and filling it up on a car and buying a SIM card for a mobile phone and inserting into the phone, people have to buy an Electricity Charge Card. I could charge electricity by purchasing an Electricity Charge Card for the value I want to use, and the charged amount will drop as much as I use electricity. Thus, I could use electricity seeing what I have purchased with money is being reduced slowly with my own eyes. This naturally allows the users to have awareness of saving electricity – just like a driver being sensitive to gas usage.
In order to carry out this system effectively, we have designed Warning Bulb. Warning Bulb is a product controlling electricity of each house like a fuse box. Electricity is charged by inserting an Electricity Charge Card into this card slot. Charged amount is displayed on this Charged Amount Display. As you use electricity, the displayed amount decreases. This part is also Charged Amount Display. Like battery display on mobile phone, one bar at a time disappears when a certain charged amount is used, displaying the remaining charged amount intuitively. When there isn’t much charged amount left, a warning light lit up on $ display in order to notify necessity of charging.
This part is EPM (Electricity Per Minute) Display that displays electricity usage per minute like RPM display on a car’s dashboard. EPM Display is filled in yellow color in proportion to electricity being used in real time. How electricity usage is reduced by unplugging a plug, switching off an unused computer, and switching off a light of a room with no one in are shown visually through the display. Electricity usage will then immediately be considered related to money. As much electricity is being used, the entire display will be filled with yellow color, and when it exceeds a certain figure, W part will be lit for an alarming purpose.
This product has been designed by making it in bulb’s shape like its name, to show light comes up on a bulb as more plugs are plugged in and more electricity is used. In other words, it is a warning light for standby energy.
Electricity Prepay-card System and Warning Bulb will help consumers who do not know that more electricity is being wasted than they thought, or consumers who know the fact, but are not aware enough to take actions to save electricity. And with such change of electricity users, it will reduce a huge amount of CO2. The amount of CO2 that can be eliminated by reducing standby energy, a part of wasted energies, is like eliminating 17,600,000 passenger cars like I mentioned earlier.
Our proposition is an effort that can be done right now for the grave issue of the earth, global warming.
