VEE (Visualizing Energy Efficiency) was a project for Aalto Kiinteistöt (Aalto University Property Management) and Senaati Kiinteistöt (Property Management for Senaati buildings), where the aim was to visualize the energy use in 3 categories (electicity, water and heat) on interactive screens next to the building's entrance.
The main idea of the design (by Antti Hietaniemi) is that the absolute values of energy use do not have much value to the users, but only the change of usage is of value. Each energy type was assigned one symbol, which is animated according to the change usage (increasing, stable, decreasing). Challenges or tips to decrease energy usage are displayed according to the change in usage.
My own part in the project was the implementation, which is a combination of HTML, CSS, and Javascript, combined with XML files to save the usage data and generate the daily challenge or tip. The consumption data only has to be requested from the main database once a day, so that as little internet connectivity as possible is required. After the new daily consumption values have been loaded from the server the setup runs without network usage.
The main idea of the design (by Antti Hietaniemi) is that the absolute values of energy use do not have much value to the users, but only the change of usage is of value. Each energy type was assigned one symbol, which is animated according to the change usage (increasing, stable, decreasing). Challenges or tips to decrease energy usage are displayed according to the change in usage.
My own part in the project was the implementation, which is a combination of HTML, CSS, and Javascript, combined with XML files to save the usage data and generate the daily challenge or tip. The consumption data only has to be requested from the main database once a day, so that as little internet connectivity as possible is required. After the new daily consumption values have been loaded from the server the setup runs without network usage.
TUAS building at Aalto University Campus Otaniemi
Aalto Headquarters (left) and Aalto Main Building (right)
Animation states for the different usage patterns (increasing, stable, decreasing)
The background colors reflects the overall consumption, which is visible on first sight.
increasing electricity usage
stable water usage (left) and decreasing heat usage (right)
