Feb 27, 2009 is the finals of the Greener Gadgets design competition. As this is a design competition, the designs are not necessarily fully viable, but they are good for communicating and getting ideas about future green design. There are 50 finalists.
Some of the designs most relevant to sustainability through feedback are:
Tweet-a-Watt, a combination of a commercial kill-a-watt device and a Xbee wireless module which transmits the data to a nearby computer and tweets it to the world. This is a great concept for sharing energy, although it only works for the energy from one outlet.
Bware Water Meter, which attaches to a shower or kitchen tap and has a display which shows how much water has been used.
SmartSwitch makes lights physically harder to turn on during hours of peak demand, or to reflect energy conservation goals.
Overall, a lot of interesting ideas. Many of them are targeting sub problems, such as discouraging use at certain points or making tasks more efficient. It remains to be seen which will be made into products and where their impact will be.
