GeroHaus

Inspiration

As one of the most severe problems of our time, the climate change phenomena has received considerable global attention and enaction over the years. However, we are still not getting closer to our climate goals. Joined by 194 countries in 2015, the Paris Climate Agreement aims to limit the increase in average global temperatures to well below 2 degree celsius, preferably below 1.5 degree celsius compared to pre-industrial levels. When the Earth’s average temperature rises beyond 1.5 degree celsius, many natural systems that sustain human life become severely threatened. Heatwaves and droughts would become harsher, sea levels would rise significantly, coral reefs would be wiped out, many species of animals would go extinct, and many more people would fall into climate-induced poverty. To achieve the 1.5 degree celsius target, net greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced by 50% by 2030 and eliminated by 2050. Despite this, countries are still not doing enough to meet the 1.5 degree celsius threshold and the Earth is projected to warm up by 2.5 degree celsius by the end of the century. Furthermore, most initiatives today are conducted at the government or industrial level, while actions to reduce carbon footprint remain limited at the individual, household level. This is despite households contributing a significant 29% of all greenhouse gas emissions. We contend that households would be more inclined to play their role to reduce their carbon footprint if there was an easy way to track, make sense and implement measures to reduce their carbon footprint. Thus, we developed GeroHaus, a solution that utilizes a smart IoT electricity receptacle tracker and an AI-driven mobile app that allows households to achieve net zero carbon emissions for their receptacle loads at home.

What it does

GeroHaus is an intelligent, convenient and accessible solution for homeowners to achieve net zero carbon emissions for receptacle loads in their homes. Using both IOT hardware and a companion app, homeowners can:

1. Track and make sense of their electricity usage.
2. Receive intelligent suggestions from the app on what they can do to reduce electricity consumption.
3. Use Augmented Reality features to see how they can enhance their indoor and outdoor spaces by adding plants and solar panels respectively, both which help to offset carbon emissions to achieve net zero carbon emissions.

Overall, our solution is a two stage approach, where the first stage involves helping households cut down on their electrical consumption, while the second stage involves encouraging households to adopt plants and solar panels in their homes to offset carbon emissions from electrical consumption.

Reducing Carbon Emissions

Tracking their electricity usage begins with the hardware IOT which we call the Smart Electricity Tracker (SET). To install SET onto all the electrical appliances at home, simply connect SETs to the wall power outlet and then connect existing electrical appliances to each respective SET; it works just like a travel adapter. To set up each SET, open the app and scan a unique QR code that is printed on the bottom of each SET. This initiates the set-up process where the user input what the particular SET is connected to, as well as the model number (television, washing machine, air cleaner, desktop computer etc). During the set-up process, the SET will also be automatically connected to the home router network.

Each SET monitors the power consumption of the appliance it is connected to in the house, and this is reflected in the app. Rather than just presenting this information to the user without context, the app helps users make sense of the numbers by presenting the electricity use data in terms of how much CO2 they are emitting into the atmosphere through their electricity usage. Over time, the app can do one of two things to help lower electricity usage:

1. Recommend Replacing Appliance: By benchmarking the electrical consumption for each connected electrical appliance with the national average and evolving industrial standards, the app would detect appliances that are not energy saving and suggest a model that users can buy and replace. The model suggested would ideally have a similar capacity/functionality as the current one, while also rated Energy Star by the US Environmental Protection Agency.

2. Suggest Changes in User Habits For devices such as phones, laptops and desktop computers, the app would identify periods of inactivity or trickle charging where electricity is wasted. It would then suggest to the user to either program the SET to cut power to the handphone once it detects trickle charging, or prompt users to remember to turn off their laptop or desktop computers when not in use rather than leaving it idle.

Offsetting Carbon Emissions

The app has an augmented reality function where users can visualize and understand how adopting different types and quantities of plants can offset their CO2 emissions. The app uses the camera and intelligently overlays different types of plants (that users can choose) that are great at removing CO2 from the environment, at good locations within and outside their home. The same AR features extends to solar panels, where pointing the app at the roof of the house would allow the app to calculate what is the total usable area of the roof, and suggest how solar panels can be incorporated if they have not already done so. Then, the app would calculate the total amount of CO2 that can be offset from the existing receptacle load.

The app would generate any number of combinations of the above such that net zero carbon emissions would be reached, while maintaining a similar standard of living and preserving the aesthetics of the house.

How we built it

We began by studying and consulting LEED codes of practice, RESNET HERS energy codes and Energy Star recommendations set out by the US Environmental ProtectionAgency. We did a detailed electrical budget balance to verify the feasibility of our solution, which proved to be very achievable. We then hid the engineering calculations and transferred only the essential information to the app for the user in a manner that is digestible.

In order to visualize our app, we made heavy use of Figma in order to realize a prototype of how we envisioned GeroHaus to function with all the features that we have in mind. As we have a hardware component for the project, SolidWorks was used to accurately model the product, this included having a decked-out model of the component with an ESP8266 and circuitry. Using Unreal Engine 5, we were able to realistically simulate GeroHaus's AR and AI component, where we not only provide a recommendation via the use of AI, but we are also able to provide a compelling visualization of where solar panels and the greenery could be placed in order to get maximum impact. This is made possible through the use of Lidar sensors that are embedded in the heart of phones.

Challenges we ran into

Many sustainability apps focus on electrical consumption. While this could be highly accurate, the sheer amount of technical data being presented to users could intimate and turn users away, further compounding the problem we were trying to solve. It was imperative we find a universal metric that could be easily understood, something that everybody can easily relate to and has widespread understanding. We conducted literature review to find out the conversation rate from electrical usage to the amount of CO2 emitted into the environment. Given that the app was highly technical, it was challenging to conduct an extensive literature review and performed detailed engineering calculations in a limited amount of time, since prototype development had to be done concurrently.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Through this exercise, I think what was remarkable was how through a very short period of time, we were able to develop a working concept for how a sustainability application can come about within the bounds of IOT, AI and product design. Through this process of developing GeroHaus, the idea transfigured over many times, through the refinement and the development of the concept, before finally achieving the current end goal.

What we learned

During this exercise, we never thought to be able to explore so many facets of design, the built environment, IOT, AI and prototyping. Our initial idea was to incorporate the LEED code for Homeowners to allow them to achieve a Net-Zero accreditation in the hopes of creating a win-win situation, where homeowners will get to save money, at the same time, they will also be doing their part to save the Earth, This is especially pertinent given that just within the US, we have found out about how almost 50% of energy is still supplied by coal energy. Additionally, the "Typical" annual CO2 emissions are 14,020 pounds per household, assuming approximately 943 kWh per month. This research through this project had prompted our team to seriously and urgently look for solutions to solve this sustainability crisis.

What's next for GeroHaus

Gerohaus hopes to not just work with electrical appliances and try to encourage people to be more sustainable, we intend to develop in the following ways:

• We intend to provide the same level of detailed AI-tracking for plumbing and gas through installing water and gas meters that are IOT enabled. This allows us to comprehensively track consumption at home. In addition, we would also aim to track electrical consumption of items that are not receptacle but base-built - such as HVAC energy consumption.

• To further encourage greater growth in the use of the application as well as the for the cause, we hope to build in some intrinsic motivation for our users through a gamified experience. Features include a leaderboard system, a goal setting feature for them to incrementally be more sustainable.

Built With

• engine
• figma
• rhinoceros3d
• solidworks
• unreal-engine