Carboncount

Inspiration

I was inspired by a carbon emission calculator that checks carbon emission of food, but what about computers? We use it everyday but there isn't much apps out there to calculate it.

What it does

It essentially calculates the amount of carbon emissions a computer makes each second in order for us to be more aware on how much much impact our computers makes each day in order to become more sustainable. It runs in the background and generates a report on carbon output.

How we built it

• We built the app using React.js and pywebview.
• Web scrape PC component's power rating using javascript

Challenges we ran into

• There was limitations in gathering power of all PC components through Python API so we have to find mean values for some components (disk, GPU, CPU)
• Researching statistical value about carbon emission in computer
• Plotting the graph using Chart.js, recording the users carbon usage using calculation.
• Gathering historical data of user and classifying was a long process.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• It is pretty useful for me personally because I can see how much my computer emits carbon each day

What we learned

• I'm proud that i was able to learn something new about the Webview API which enables me to run HTML & CSS via python.
• I learnt so much about carbon emissions on our devices and it made me more aware of becoming sustainable
• I learnt about desktop compilation method using PyInstaller via .spec files

What's next for Carboncount

• Mass gathering of data of all by web scraping of more PC component
• Using AI for predictive analysis
• More accurate information about disk usage (not just averaging out)
• Better UI and graph presentation
• Adding notification
• Having a dashboard for users with a lot of devices

Built With

• co2-benchmark
• gui
• python
• react