HEEP Visualization Data

Our prototypes are finally functional and display data that is stored in Google Spreadsheets. This was a huge step which allowed us to schedule a meeting with the Hawaii Energy Efficiency Program to show them our prototypes. The next step was to find actual data to populate the spreadsheet.

In order to have realistic looking visualizations, we needed to find actual numbers that correspond to the electricity used by appliances in each of the categories we cover. This turned out to be more difficult than I thought it would be. After getting into the research of the electrical characteristics of the various appliances, I began to notice that not all appliance specifications are standard. Some had the information that I required and some were very scarce. This led me to make assumptions to try to determine the data that we required. There were also a lot of unit conversions involved that made things more difficult. The data we have now is based on actual data from appliance specifications sheets, but I am hopeful that HEEP might already have the data we need to make our visualizations useful.

Here is a link to our spreadsheet.

Working on these visualizations has been an experience. It has allowed us to use our imaginations to design different visualizations. We have taken ideas and turned them into real prototypes. For the next milestone, I hope that HEEP becomes more involved in the design and requirements process, so we are not guessing about the data and what they want. This would make our job easier and increase the chances that they get the applications that they want.