feedback: the next evolution in energy

in the afternoon during the CLICC Conference, Stina Wessman of the Interactive Institute of Sweden gave a very interesting presentation about feedback focused on sustainability.  though the entire presentation was in Swedish and the slides were rich with text (also in Swedish), I did manage to get the gist of some of what she was saying.  I also used this thing called "the google" to look up some of what she was talking about to learn more.

Stina Wessman, from the Interactive Institute of Sweden, talking about feedback and energy awareness at the CLICC Conference at Malmomassan in Hyllie

the Interactive Institute of Sweden is an experimental company that combines Information Technology, design, and research together and applies this learning and knowledge to a wide variety of fields and applications.  as usual, their website describes themselves better than I can:

Interactive Institute is a Swedish experimental IT & design research institute that conducts applied research and innovation through creative and participatory processes.

the Interactive Institute works ons lots of stuff, more than I can even get into in this post, so I will focus on what I gleaned from Stina's presentation and from reading a little on their website.  the Institute has a focus on sustainability (among other topics) and has engaged in many research projects and experiments about behavior and feedback, which ties in perfectly to the idea of CLICC, which is all about engaging city inhabitants on the issue of carbon footprint and helping people living in the city understand their own individual role(s) as a part of the citywide effort to become carbon neutral in the next 20 years.  yes.  I said it.  the city of Malmo would like to be carbon neutral in the next 20 years.  and the city is actively aiming toward that goal.

Stina talked about projects that are geared toward helping people see (and therefore better understand) their energy use and consumption.  she cited some very cool examples that are prototypes and/ or soon to be marketed and sold ideas that connect people and energy use.  much of what she talked about reminded me of the thinking and initiatives that were undertaken as part of the 2009 Solar Decathlon competition that I worked on through the BAC and Tufts.  our project, entitled curio, focused on sustainable living and awareness as much (if not more) than designing and constructing an 800 square foot zero energy house.

here are a couple that were neat.  there are many more on the website.

"The Power Aware Cord is designed to visualize the energy of the current use of electricity of the appliances connected with it through glowing pulses, flow, and intensity of light."  this picture is from the Interactive Institute website 

the Flower Lamp is another example of innovative thinking around energy use and visualization.  the lamp changes form and becomes dimmer/ brighter based on energy use.  the lamp is an attractive and interactive monitor of energy consumption that can, in turn, affect behavior.

the Element is an attempt to change energy from an unseen source to a visible source.  in this case the energy is heat, as evidenced in a radiator.  the experiment is to showcase the amount of heat being emitted from a radiator in a new form, light.  the light emission is directly matched to the heat emission, thus the brightness of the "radiator" tells you how hot it is.  from the flikr site:

It is usually hard to tell whether radiators are on or off except by laying a hand upon them.  This prototype is made out of glass, metal, and enough light bulbs to reach the same efficiency as an electric radiator, and the current energy level is visible at all times.

I will tell you about two more, but I recommend if you are interested to read up on the Interactive Institute.  they are doing some amazing work in the field of interaction, sustainability, and energy.

the Energy AWARE Clock is an electricity meter that resembles an ordinary kitchen clock.  it measures your energy consumption and tells you the time simultaneously while also allowing you to compare previous energy use to today's consumption, thus you become aware and notice improvements and changes in consumption.

lastly, BoEL is a chance to compare your energy use to your neighbors.  a web based interface and simple glowing orb in your window shows how much energy you are consuming.  red, green, and yellow are comparative measurements that allow each user as well as the neighbors to see how one unit performs.  this could lead to healthy competition, shared knowledge and team building, or even a little pang of guilt, all of which have been shown to affect behavior.  according to the website:

BoEL is an experimental social ambient interface and web service that presents daily consumption figures to home owners and neighbors to promote joint savings and foster competitive energy saving bahaviors.  The service includes an ambient lamp that provides feedback on the energy consumption in the household and these interfaces are installed so that the neighbors can observe each others energy status.

check out the Interactive Institute of Sweden's website for more cool strategies about using interaction and communication to affect behavior and sustainable living.

the washer and dryer... I figured it out!

the bathroom in this apartment has baffled me since day one and I am still trying to figure some parts of it out, but each day it makes a little more sense.  the building is "passive" which basically means that there is no heating or cooling in the apartment.  there is a thermostat that you can turn up and it will simply supply you with clean air that has been pre (or re) heated by the heat produced by building inhabitants.  there are no air conditioners, no radiators, no nothing.  just these little things on the wall that spit out clean air and other ones that suck away the dirty air.  more on that as I figure it out.

front load washer (right) and dryer (left) in the apartment

meanwhile, I figured out the washer dryer situation.  the washer is a pretty normal eco front loader, but the dryer had been baffling me for a couple of days.  I had been talking with Tamara about how to use the dryer and she explained that after every use you need to open up a little compartment on the bottom to wring out a filter and empty a little water compartment.

bottom of dryer

we both agreed that the system adds a little extra work each time you run the dryer and that it was a little annoying.  I could not explain why you'd need to empty water out of the dryer because clearly the washer has a drain so the dryer could too.

after opening the front panel at the bottom of the dryer you can see where the fan operates (on the right) and where the filter can be removed (on the left) as well as the water compartment (bottom)

then it hit me.  its so simple I don't know why I didn't figure it out immediately.  you need to wring out the filter and empty the water compartment because there is no vent for the dryer.  whatever water is taken from the air inside the dryer has to go somewhere, so they suck it through a filter and deposit it into a compartment at the bottom.  because the apartment is passive and the heat created by the inhabitants is reused, they don't want to waste all of that heat venting outside so they vent inside.  in fact, the bathroom actually heats up during the dryer cycle because it is venting into the room!

filter (top left, grey) slides out after the cover (bottom right, grey) that holds it in place is removed

so simple.  or so complicated?

water compartment (white, left), filter (grey, middle), and cover plate (grey, right) are the removable pieces of the bottom of the dryer that allow for the dryer to vent directly into the bathroom

tub not sealed to the wall...?

dear people (who have stumbled across this blog and mistakenly started reading it, only to find out that I don't use capital letters at the beginning of sentences and I talk mostly about food and beer instead of sustainable design and architecture),

can anyone explain this one to me?  the tub, which stands on four legs but has sides so it looks like a tub set onto (or into) the tiling, is not, in any way, sealed to the wall on either of the two sides that touch up against the tile.  the hot and cold pipes come up between the tub and the tile on the short side, in plain sight, touchable (and conceivably hotter than you'd want to accidentally touch).  when one is taking a shower, water bounces off the body, off the walls, and off the curtain and falls behind the tub on two sides onto the tile floor.

this defies all seventeen years of BAC education.  water is the enemy.  water is violent and dangerous and should be locked up, caged, or otherwise incarcerated.  water is the ruination of all architecture (even Falling Water).  right?

because water is clearly the enemy, we should always seal, finish, control, and ultimately ship water the hell out of anything we build, right?  doesn't water create mold and promote wildlife and destroy the ozone layer?  was I sleeping all through school?  somebody, please explain these pictures.

thanks!
me

the tub does not touch the wall on either of the two sides where it could and there is a huge gap where the pipes come up on the short side

here's the corner.  you can see a large gap and a small gap and water droplets just relaxing there (because I am taking their picture).  as soon as I leave the room and turn off the light they drift down to the floor...

see, here is the water under the tub on the floor.  that white things is one of the four feet for the tub.

yes, this is the drain for the tub.  a hole in the tile floor with a pvc pipe going through it.  yes, since you asked, there is water building up all around the hole and I am pretty sure some falls down there to... somewhere.  no I did not test for mold.  I am just assuming that there is mold forming in there somewhere...