| A Green-Friendly Electric Meter? What if your electric meter wasn't such a big, ugly, industrial leech on the side of your house? What if it were elegant, simple, and rewarded you for efficient and green energy usage? Please note: this concept is from a contest I saw *somewhere* (yes, I've searched... oh woe) on the 'net, but promptly ignored. Something Viridian, no doubt. |
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Project: Create an alternative electric meter that sensually and instinctively rewards reduced energy consumption. Concept: Attach an outer lid to existing meter, fitted with a photo-resistor so that it lines up opposite the rotating energy consumption wheel. As the wheel rotates, the black mark on the edge (I think most meters have one or more already) spins past the photo-resistor, and the corresponding change in voltage is transmitted to a client elsewhere by any number of methods. The circuit could be solar or wind powered, or sap a wee bit o' fossil energy from the line-- just enough to power an LED (to light up the wheel) and the "server" circuit. An example (and rudimentary) client would be a Pretty Little Picture Viewer™ that displays a variety of tranquil scenes involving windmills, waterwheels, etc, and gets blurry and pulses orange as power consumption increases. Here is a manually-operated prototype of such a client. To return to this page, turn the meter off. Enjoy! |
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