The Wilting Flower design concept, from British designer Carl Smith, will help homeowners to monitor their energy consumption via a metal flower that responds to energy use in the home. The flower connects with the home’s energy system via wireless technology.
The flower is open, bright and upright when the homeowner is using a reasonable amount of energy. But when homeowners start overconsuming energy, the flower petals close, the flower also changes to an unhealthy colour and eventually wilts, with the stem bending the flower over just like a natural dying flower.
Perhaps homeowners will treat the Wilting Flower like a Tamogotchi pet, the Japanese phenomena where individuals worked to keep an electronic pet happy and alive. It certainly is a visually attractive design and will help to remind people that their over-consumption of energy does result in environmental damage. We caught up with 22-year old designer Carl Smith to ask a few questions about his Wilting Flower.
Please tell us a bit about the Wilting Flower.
This prototype model was made for my major project design at university. The design was partly inspired by the current cost of energy and the efforts being made by companies and the government to make people aware of household consumption. But my general view was that most households don’t realize how much energy they are using until they get a bill at the end of the month. Other products on the market offer you different ways of displaying your household energy consumption typically on small LCD units which is not very aesthetically pleasing for the home and the information can be hard to interpret.
This design was aimed to be something visual that would fit in as a nice decorative piece in the home and clearly display the households’ energy consumption.
How will it help people to reduce energy consumption?
The aim was to make people more conscious about their household energy use and help to display that in a way that could be easily understood. The idea is that at any point in the day you can have a look at how you are doing even if its just a glance from across the room and quickly be able to relate the information to what you know is switched on.
Therefore, if there are times when it appears to be unusually high you may find you have left something on or running upstairs which you had forgotten about.
Ultimately it is up to the person to do something about it if the household energy is high, naturally sometimes, this is unavoidable (washer and tumble dryer on whilst watching the telly for example). By relating it to a flower and a decorative piece it was hoped that the user would become attached to it and would want to help to keep it looking at its best, i.e. in bloom.
Who do you imagine the target audience is?
I wanted to make the product first and foremost to be as close as possible to being universally understood. I wanted the symbolism of the flower and the actions that it goes through to be able to be understood by children and grownups alike. My main target was obviously homeowners so typically adults over 18 but with a focus on adults with younger families with the hope being that the flower would appeal enough to, and be able help, children growing up understand about energy use.
How will the flower actually work?
The flower uses technology that is already widely available to monitor the household consumption. 1. A wireless transmitter is attached to your mains electricity supply. 2. As more appliances are turned on more current is drawn and this is converted into a power reading. 3.The transmitter constantly sends signals to the Wilting Flower that reacts accordingly to the data received. i.e. Low amounts - Flower opens up and glows greeny/blue, high amounts the flower closes up and turns red. If the energy remains high for a prolonged period of time the flower will wilt over, turning a deep purple before finally going out.
When will the Wilting Flower be available?
I currently have no intentions to take the design any further than this prototype model after finishing university in June. From the user testing of this prototype it was clear that the model would require some further development work before a commercial model could be made.
The Wilting Flower is estimated to retail for about $92 dollars.
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