SAKEY Saving Energy Key
Background: This is a group project I did in a course called From idea to Design. We designed an energy saving key called SAKEY to help individual househoulds save electricity fee. And I deepened this project and present here in my portfolio.
What I have done: Conception Prototype Business Modeling
Team Project Sep. 2017
ENVISION Energy is there whenever you need it or not. So it’s easy to forget where it comes from or how much it costs. Every year, we use more energy than we did the year before. Energy isn’t free. People pay for all the electricity they use. So wasting energy is the same as wasting money. And that’s not a good idea! So I saw a design opportunity for people who want to save energy in their house.
A vast majority of American(90%)say that someone in their household forgets to turn lights off when they leave a room.
PERCEIVING We want to create a device that turns off the electricity in the house when you’re outside a certain perimeter of home(except a few things like the fridge). That have to be an object that people would bring with them when they are out. So we think up the key-chains-shaped beacon. I went with a smooth shape because it transmits less aggressive values and blends in.
SMOOTH 1
2
3
4
5
6
Ceiling
30mm
A simple HUD(head-up display) is used to detect the the beacon. The 5 signal lights indicate the amounts of connections with the beacon. The HUD would be placed on the ceiling so it can easily be connected to the power supply and will not be disturbing. And I want it to look like a clock, so it also displays the time.
13mm 80mm
IDEATING
160mm Present time
Amounts of connections
6mm
25mm
Detecting
REALIZING
We used 3D printer made our beacon. And I polished it to be smoother and paint it in color. For the HUD, we used wood for the prototype. And we named the product ‘Sakey’, which means saving energy key.
1
2
4
3
5
TECHNOLOGY
For the attempt to make a prototype that shows the function we used infrared. It detects when the infrared launcher (keychain) is close. And when the IR sensor cannot detecte the keychain anymore it will send command to cut the power supply for certain eletric device.
infrared launcher batery
3V IR LED
connect to power infrared sensor
IR SENSOR
3V
sponge Sensor Circuit
Beacon Circuit
BUSINESS MODEL CUSTOMER & MARKET
The target customers are Energy companies. And their customers are individual households. Including Sakey in the packages will improve the image as an energy company. And with the benefit of saving electricity money will attract more individual households for Energy companies.
Ultimate Customers: Individual Household Target Customers: Energy companies
FOR FREE
HAVING OUR PRODUCT EVERYONE GET BENEFITS !
Saving money for individual households: In Netherlands, wasted household electricity is up to 300 kWh / year. That’s around 59 euros / year. And Sakey will help the individual households save the money without any efforts or extra costs. Earning money for energy companies: I did a little research among 20 people around me. And found 6 of them would like to change into the energy companies which include Sakey. This means Sakey can help energy companies attract around 30% new users. And the amount of energy that wouldn’t be used will be outweighed by the amount of new customers. Money for the design team: Instead of asking money for the product costs, we would just ask installation fee from the energy companies. And when energy companies actually gaining profits, we need to share the benefits.
OUR GOAL Our goal is helping to increase energy company’s income by selling less energy!
PRICING STRATEGY The decision on the price of the product and the pricing strategy impacts consumer’s decision on whether or not to purchase the product. We decided to include Sakey in the selling packages for energy companies free of charge. After energy companies attract more individual customers they have to share the benefits with us.