Had nice half term project testing the awesome Matt Venn’s Energy Wristband project. I’ve wanted to do domestic current monitoring for ages ever since hearing about Adrian McEwen’s adventures back in 2008 but was too scared to start messing with mains until realising you dont need any invasive sensing at all and can use something like Current Cost.
I love this project as it’s all about family engagement with data and a bit of a theme of mine is making sensors and data physically tangible to aid the understanding of abstracted information. Even if you ‘know’ you may be using too much energy it does not really modify behaviour and even a graph that show you definately ARE still is not enough.
I’m really interested in the way Matt’s thought about flipping ‘pester power’ but also trying to literally ‘feel’ data with a wrist worn rumble pack: and then worn by your kids and siblings amplifies the pest element! Anyway much half term fun had running around turning off lights constantly and working out how much making a fried breakfaast really costs esp if you use the oven aswell as a frying pan…
Despite my 2 lads now feeling smugly energy conscious it’s funny how the energy spikes of FIFA15 on xbox still go unheeded… The arcade game Joust (actually my youngest’s fave game we play together) running on a MAME emulator on the pi draws way less power; but well I can’t seem to argue a switch to this game platform to save money without making a proper arcade cabinet…
It will be interesting how multiple wristbands could work in a workshop setting.
