Redesign Day » climate change

Awesome Designs – The Saverclip

Jeff Awesome — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 15:27:02 +0000

Gadgets are always at the forefront of amazing design with a lot of companies making the looks of a certain product almost more important than the actual thing its meant to do (think Apple…) and even when the gadget itself is not the coolest thing ever that doesn’t mean it can’t look amazing.

Take this little gadget the ‘Saverclip’ all it does is show you how much electricity is being wasted by an electrical product by being clipped onto the power lead and yet they have made it into a very cool and sleek little gadget.

Made to help people take more notice of wasted electricity of products left on standby and help stop global climate change it is a small and not necessarily very cool gadget (I mean compared to James Bond type gadgets!) but yet the makers have still gone to the effort of making it look very, very cool indeed.

Being a person that appreciates the aesthetics of things I wish more manufacturers followed this example because far to many ordinary, everyday household items are far to boring!

Zero Carbon Houses – A Reality By 2016

Jeff Awesome — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:51:41 +0000

due to the new zero carbon homes scheme unveiled by the government recently to help combat global warming, the first houses have been built as a test to see how it could be achieved and more importantly how viable it will be money-wise. Here is an interesting video from the BBC that is worth a watch.

Visual Voltage

Jeff Awesome — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 10:46:34 +0000

The Visual Voltage Exhibition is being shown at Design Vlaanderen in Brussels, starting tomorrow (10th September) and will continue until the 2nd of October. It will be just one of many expos that make up the Design September event and is probably the most interesting to me because of the theme the touring Swedish exhibition has, climate change. As you may have gathered climate change and global warming are a big concern for me and so any designs that incorporate eco friendly parts and use into them instantly gains my interests. The designs they have come up with mostly deal with showing the user how much energy they are using, which should help them become more energy aware because the biggest cause of energy waste is people not realising they are wasting in the first place.

The energy aware clock is a neat little electricity meter made to resemble an ordinary, albeit very nice, kitchen clock. The idea is that the clock visualises energy and a quick glance will tell you how much energy is being used. The new days energy consumption is drawn on top of fading previous days so you can compare your energy use.

Another similar design is the illuminated power cord, it does as it says and illuminates but the light will get more powerful the more enegery it is using, so if you glance at it and it is glowing very bright it will remind you to unplug that device that is maybe not needed right at that moment.

The energy curtain is a solar powered light that glows when it gets dark, however the user has to decide if they want to conserve energy or let sunlight in during the day because it needs to be down to harness the suns power. It says on the website this is to allow the user to reflect and act according to his feelings each day – I just think its a good idea badly designed.

Possibly the most useful bit of furniture they have designed is the Laundry Lamp, which combines a drying rack with a lamp so your clothes become an ever rotating lampshade. I think this is a brilliant idea and I’m kicking myself for not thinking of it first. A traditional light bulbs energy is wasted by a vast amount normally because only 5% is light, the rest of it is heat, so to put the heat to a good use is definitely a good idea. You would need nice clothes though to make it somewhat attractive, I like how they have used lingerie in the press pictures, haha.

I just hope they have somehow made the bulb and electrical parts waterproof….