The Power Puggle
“An adorable personal energy friend that makes saving energy fun. A sensor records how much energy you use at home and suggests an energy reduction target. When you meet your target, you gain credits to take care of your energy friend-a cute platypus, whose health is dependent on the care and love you give it.”
A project featured in the 3Ai Demo Day 2020
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Motivations
Climate change is one of the most challenging issues facing humankind today. To make our energy consumption sustainable for future generations and for the survival of the planet, there is broad scientific consensus regarding the need to transition to a zero-emissions global economy . This will require fundamental changes to the supply of energy, which will need to be produced with lower emissions, predominantly through the use of renewable energy sources. Until all our energy generation comes from zero-emissions sources, the other way to reduce emissions is to simultaneously lower the demand for energy by reducing excess energy consumption.
The PowerPuggle is a cyber-physical system (CPS) that aims to do exactly that by encouraging users to reduce their energy consumption, thereby reducing emissions. In doing so, we didn’t want to make people feel guilty about their energy habits - we envisioned a system that would engage and excite users about saving energy, and give them a platform to track and share achievements with their friends and broader community; in short, we aimed to design a system that was fun – meet the PowerPuggle!
The PowerPuggle
The PowerPuggle is an interactive energy meter that gamifies energy reduction. About the size of a box of playing cards, the PowerPuggle is a small physical device that you can carry around in your pocket. It’s tactile, with buttons and a small colour touch screen.
The screen displays the PowerPuggle, which is a seriously cute baby platypus (the name for a baby platypus is a ‘puggle’.) We selected the platypus because of its ability to detect electric fields through its bill, called ‘bill sense’.
The buttons and touchscreen allow you to perform a number of actions to take care of your PowerPuggle. You need to feed it and give it water every day, or it will eventually get sick. Your PowerPuggle also needs the love and attention of tickles and the occasional party at fairly regular intervals in order to be as healthy and happy as it can possibly be.
So far so good - but where does the energy saving come in? The PowerPuggle device is connected wirelessly to a sensor/s that monitor energy consumption in your home . On set-up, the sensor collects data on the household’s energy consumption over seven days, developing a baseline. During this time, the PowerPuggle is an unhatched egg. Based on energy usage during the data collection period, our algorithm recommends an energy saving target. The user can accept this or select their own target. At this point, the PowerPuggle hatches.
The energy consumption sensor now begins to measure daily energy consumption. Daily consumption is displayed in the interface. For each day that the person meets or beats their energy saving target, they are rewarded with a congratulatory message and credits. If they beat their target for seven days in a row, or save a lot of energy, they receive bonus credits.
The credits earned are used to procure food, water and treats for the PowerPuggle. Its overall health is represented by a health bar of between one and seven hearts. Food and water need to be provided every day in order to maintain the PowerPuggle’s health. In addition, as the user earns more credits, they can buy the PowerPuggle a party as a treat, or shower their PowerPuggle with love by giving it a tickle – which is free.
If the user fails to take care of their PowerPuggle (either through forgetfulness or because they don’t reduce their energy consumption and therefore don’t receive credits), the user receives a beep sound and a message, reminders that the PowerPuggle is hungry. If no action is taken, the puggle gets sick, and sustained energy saving is required to make it healthy again.
In order to fulfil our goal of having an impact on the environment by reducing, the PowerPuggle design needed to create change in the physical world (in this case, through changing the user’s behaviour). Our design draws heavily on ‘nudge theory’ from behavioural economics to encourage the maximum possible change in user behaviour without being punitive or mandatory. Our idea was that the user would be motivated to take care of their PowerPuggle and reduce their energy consumption in the process because they develop an attachment to their PowerPuggle and want it to be healthy and happy.