Energy Saver Manager (or ESM) is an application which approaches the electricity problem: waste of energy means waste of money and of resources, and the presentation emphasized this in numerous ways.
ESM was developed in Visual Basic and uses Microsoft Access as a database backend. It features three modes:
- Administrator mode: an administrator can update the location, the prices for electricity, add possible devices and consumption information for them, etc.
- Manager mode: a manager can add devices for their house hold, can configure usage parameters and generate reports to see the progress over time.
- Tips: there is a special section with tips on how to lower consumption over time. However, tips are present all over the program. For example, if you want to use a mixer, you are suggested to try and mix your juice by hand
We enjoyed the entrepreneurial spirit of the young Macedonian, and also her persuasive skills: she convinced us to turn off the lights in the judging room during the presentation.
Suggestions for further improvements:
- Convert your project to a web application
- Support text tips with visual aids
- Make relative comparisons, use percentages! Illustrate progress using charts! People are more receptive to the fact that they consumed 30% less this month, than to the fact that they consumed 50kWh less.
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