Greenhouse

Inspiration

We wanted to do something to mitigate the excessive waste of utilities leading to adverse effects on the environment. The production of utilities like electricity and gas produces byproducts that are harmful to the environment and depending on the service provider the volume of pollutants is considerably higher than others. We are aiming to reduce this overconsumption in order to further stall the negative effects on the environment that our current infrastructure has.

What it does

The platform is monitoring the usage of utilities in and notifying the user when their consumption becomes excessive; above-average consumption is gereally where it will focus. Suggestions on how to cut back on consumption and suggestions for brands that produce energy-efficient appliances will also be provided as a means to reduce the overall monthly consumption, and cost, of the utilities available.

How I built it

We used the marvel pop, platform to make a mockup but are planning to develop on android studio connecting to firebase for the backend and company-specific API in order to parse the user's utility data from the service provider.

Challenges I ran into

Finding companies that developed an API for accessing their usage data.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

We have a clear plan of how we want to design the application despite not having had the skill to build it out over this weekend.

What I learned

Aside from the obvious difficulty in developing an application; how to design a product in terms of its purpose. It was really easy to get sidetracked with all the bells and whistles that could be tacked on as "special" features but really pulling back and looking at what was most important is where we had the greatest learning experience.