Our first meeting with the Hawaii Energy Efficiency Program was very productive. They were able to provide us with a much clearer picture regarding the types of applications they desire. The applications that were discussed dealt with variations in oil prices over time, HEEP's performance report card, how cooling degree days impact power consumption, and a stop light to represent the current power status. HEEP hopes the public will be able to use the information provided in these applications to adjust their energy usage and become more educated about energy issues.
The first application would show how oil prices vary over time. Oahu is very dependent on oil for power generation. Over half of the power generated on Oahu comes from petroleum. This is one reason that HEEP would like the information to be readily accessible from their website. The possibility of using a custom Google Visualization to diplay the information was discussed. The visualization desired would represent the price of oil as stacks of oil barrels.
The next application would display HEEP's performance. HEEP would like the public to have access to a "report card" that would represent HEEP's performance based on cost verses power savings. This would compare how much money was spent to produce a certain amount of power savings. HEEP would like this information updated weekly.
HEEP would also like an application that consumers can use to see how cooling degree days affect power usage as well as power consumption. Each degree over 65 degrees corresponds to one cooling degree day. Consumers could use this information to get a more accurate idea of reasons that their power consumption may have changed from one year to another. Power consumption generally increases as the number of cooling degree days rises due to additional use of air conditioners and other appliances.
Finally, HEEP would like a stop light style application created for their website. This application would be similar to the Ecotricity stop light application that represents the current power status as either red, yellow, or green. These colors correspond to high, moderate, and low demand times respectively. Consumers would then be able to modify their power usage to correspond to lower demand times.
All of these applications seem very useful and I am looking forward to beginning development. The learning curve will be steep at first, but hopefully things will become easier after becoming more familiar with Javascript and Google Visualizations. I hope that we are able to live up to HEEP's expectations and produce the applications that they desire.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
A New Partnership
The Hawaii Energy Efficiency Program (HEEP) is an organization that provides Oahu residents with information that can be used to conserve energy. They provide information on their website about various things such as solar energy, energy efficient appliances, and Hawaii's energy news. We will be working with HEEP to create some new applications for their website.
The applications for the HEEP website will be energy related. They are considering incorporating something similar to the stop light feature of the Ecotricity website that allows consumers to know what times during the day to conserve electricity. Consumers would be able to predict when peak hours are and avoid usage until lower demand times. They also mentioned possibly creating an application that dealt with oil prices.
So far, we have not been provided a clear description of what this project will consist of. Our team has scheduled a meeting with HEEP to discuss what they had in mind for their website. We hope this meeting will clear up some questions we have. During this meeting, we hope to find out more about their requirements, who we will be working with, and how the relationship between UH, HEEP, and the web development company that is building the HEEP website will work. We want to create applications that can be incorporated into the website without much dependency on other aspects of the website. This is to prevent our application from ending up on a critical path of the website's development.
During the next week, we hope to learn what kinds of applications HEEP would like built and how development will be handled. Once we know what is wanted, we can start assigning tasks to members and get our project going.
The Hawaii Energy Efficiency Program's website can be found here.
Shown below is a screenshot of the Hawaii Energy Efficiency Program's website.
The applications for the HEEP website will be energy related. They are considering incorporating something similar to the stop light feature of the Ecotricity website that allows consumers to know what times during the day to conserve electricity. Consumers would be able to predict when peak hours are and avoid usage until lower demand times. They also mentioned possibly creating an application that dealt with oil prices.
So far, we have not been provided a clear description of what this project will consist of. Our team has scheduled a meeting with HEEP to discuss what they had in mind for their website. We hope this meeting will clear up some questions we have. During this meeting, we hope to find out more about their requirements, who we will be working with, and how the relationship between UH, HEEP, and the web development company that is building the HEEP website will work. We want to create applications that can be incorporated into the website without much dependency on other aspects of the website. This is to prevent our application from ending up on a critical path of the website's development.
During the next week, we hope to learn what kinds of applications HEEP would like built and how development will be handled. Once we know what is wanted, we can start assigning tasks to members and get our project going.
The Hawaii Energy Efficiency Program's website can be found here.
Shown below is a screenshot of the Hawaii Energy Efficiency Program's website.
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