Project brief: GE commissioned the designers to develop the concept for an application that would help educate consumers about their household energy needs. The designers created a home-appliance energy-use calculator, a free online application and interactive data visualization that helps consumers calculate the energy use of home appliances in terms that are easily understood. The application was created for GE’s Ecomagination initiative and its release was timed with the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.

Approach: The calculator is designed to give consumers an easy, accessible way to comprehend their household energy needs. The application is designed to educate users about the kilowatt-hour and the billing use of electricity. Users can calculate the energy consumption of 53 electrically powered devices found in homes: from large appliances like a furnace, refrigerator and air conditioner to electronics like a laptop, DVR and TV to personal-care items like a curling iron and hair dryer to kitchen appliances like a blender, microwave and popcorn popper. The visualization allows users to see the energy consumption for each appliance in terms of watts used and the equivalent cost in dollars. It also allows users to convert the energy to equivalent consumption in gallons of gasoline—a familiar unit of energy cost for consumers—as well as fun, “appliance specific” units like loads of laundry and batches of cupcakes. The costs can be calculated per day, per month and per year, and adjusted for the user’s state—costs are higher in New York, for example.

The various appliances are represented by a series of playfully illustrated icons that users can turn “on” or “off” to get approximate totals for their own profiles. (The icons “glow” when they are on.) The devices can be sorted according to amount of energy consumed, and appliances available as ENERGY STAR models are indicated with a blue star. The calculator also features detailed views of five large appliances—refrigerator, air conditioner, freezer, dishwasher and washing machine—with notes about replacing older models with more efficient ENERGY STAR models. Additional helpful tips explain kilowatt-hours, electricity costs by state and CO2 emission conversions.

Effectiveness: The kilowatt-hour is the billing unit used for electricity but is a relatively abstract measure for consumers. The visualization describes what one kilowatt-hour yields for each device, a fun and easy way to understand the relative amount of energy required to run household appliances. For instance, 12 minutes of central air conditioning is the equivalent of doing three loads of laundry, baking one batch of cupcakes, doing 67 styles with a curling iron, transmitting 100 sitcom episodes by cable box or making 400 margaritas in a blender.

Over 20 percent of total energy consumption in the United States is residential, and the energy-use calculator is designed to give consumers an easy, accessible way to comprehend their household energy needs.

Awesome. Great grid of icons. Making info useful and accessible. Creating efficiency in a sweet and delightful way. About the environment without using tired visual tropes. Understands impact more than the usual preachy philosophy. Practical info.