HEEP Week 4: Back to the Drawing Board

It was back to the drawing board for our team this week. We found out that some of the applications that we created last week weren't feasible because the required data may not be available. I have to admit that I was a little frustrated because we weren't getting as much progress as I hoped. Although we had to scrap some of the applications, I think it may have been a blessing in disguise because we came up with new applications that I feel will be more useful to consumers. I am also hopeful that HEEP will be happy with the new applications we have come up with.

There has been a lack of communication between our team and HEEP for the past couple of weeks which initially made progress slow. After our meeting last week, Professor Johnson re-emphasized that we shouldn't let that stand in our way. We decided we are going to brainstorm new ideas for applications that we think HEEP will like. This has made development easier because we are less restricted. The boundaries for our project have been greatly expanded since we have taken this new approach. So far, it has been a new experience for me because we don't have many set specifications like we do for most other school projects. We have more freedom to make our own decisions and do what we feel is best.

We are still going to produce the oil price/consumption application because this still seems like it would be very useful to consumers. People can get a better idea of how oil price affects consumption and ultimately cost. Initially, the chart that we created was too cluttered and difficult to read. We have revised the chart so that it is more user-friendly.

In addition to our old applications, we have thought up three new applications. The first is a cooling degree day calculator. This calculator helps users correlate outside temperature to power usage. It takes as input the power usages for two years and a base temperature. The application then fetches the degree days for the corresponding years and calculates the amount of power used per degree day. It displays as a result the percent change in the power usage for the two years.

The second application is similar to the first cooling degree day calculator, but it uses the total amount of power generated for Oahu in a year. The total power generated is read in from user input (not sure if we might change this to a spreadsheet) for two different years. The application then queries for the cooling degree days for the corresponding years and returns similar information as the first application. This information can be interesting because users are able to see if there is a correlation between the amount of power generated and the temperature for given years. They will also be able to see the percent of change between the specified years.

The third application is an appliance calculator. I think that this is the most useful of the new applications that we created. It takes two appliances as input, possibly one energy star rated and one non-energy star rated. In general, the energy star appliances cost more than the non-energy star appliances. It then calculates the amount of time that it will take the user to break even by saving on electricity cost. This is the first version of the application and I'm pretty sure that more features will be added as the project progresses.

Overall, I am much happier with the progress we have made. I feel that we have more solid applications that are more practical and useful for consumers. I hope that HEEP will enjoy the applications that we create when we present them in our next meeting with them.

Shown below are screenshots of the prototypes for the new applications.

Cooling Degree Days Calculator (Usage):


Cooling Degree Days Calculator (Power Generation):


Appliance Calculator: