The Artistic Power Meter

An aesthetic design contest?

by Richard Mandel

The Viridian competition to design a consumer-friendly power consumption meter has ended, and the winning design is a real pip, worthy of the cash award the three designers received. What's a Viridian, you ask? Well, you may recall the science fiction author Bruce Sterling was a guest on these pages late last year. Through the Internet he banded together people who were as impassioned as he is about design and technology that could be environmentally benign, yet aesthetically superior to products of today. Think of the possibility of replacing plastic in laptop PC cases with material from genetically-modified bamboo. One of the core members of the group, Stefan Jones, suggested that the Viridian talent pool could redesign the standard household meter, which clings like an ugly barnacle to a home's exterior, readable only by functionaries and leaving the homeowner without any real-time idea of their own energy usage. Why not, posed Jones, create a device that could be informative and artistic at the same time? So began a contest, which was sponsored by The Sustainability Institute in cooperation with The International Network of Resource Information Centers (aka the Balaton Group), with funding from the Jennifer Altman Foundation.

The winner after a two-round judging was the Wattbug, designed by Inci Mutlu, Suleyman Erdogan and Safak Emrence of Istanbul, Turkey. The proposed tabletop device works with an information transmitter wired into the home fuse/breaker box, receiving data through the antenna that makes up its tail. The digital display on its head can display energy use from the memory in kW per hour, or total kW per month. The display "face" also depicts real-time use of current as a smile (0 to 4A), an ambivalent line (4 to 12A), or a frown (over 12A in use). A second tell-tale is a circular patch at the base of the antenna, that flashes either green, yellow or red for the same conditions. Additionally, Wattbug will "purr" as current usage decreases and "grumble" when energy use is high. The feet double as the tines of the recharging plug.

So will Wattbug ever see production? It's far more sensible than an SUV, and might even encourage kids to turn off the lights. If it does nothing else, it demonstrates the viability of Viridian design. We hope to see more.

For more information:

Circle 405 - Sustainability Institute, or connect directly to their website via the
Online Reader Service Program at http://www.1rs.com/011df-405