Visualize Your Energy Consumption
November 25, 2009 by Robin Plaskoff Horton
Imagine if monitoring your energy consumption were managed by one of your household’s lamps. With the flick of a switch, Beverly Ng’s solar-powered Spark Lamp, changes color depending on the amount of power your home has used during the month.
During the day, you flip the lamp upside down and place it next to the window to recharge. At night, you turn the lamp upright to switch it on. When on, it establishes a wifi connection to the Internet and displays your home’s energy consumption by giving off a soft green, yellow, or reddish glow for around three seconds. After a moment of eco-illumination, the light then turns white and works just like a regular lamp.
The Spark Lamp was created in response to the Swedish government’s recent legislation, in an effort to control the country’s energy consumption, that all homes must be equipped with a smart meter which allows households to monitor their energy consumption via the internet.