Power Pause

Inspiration

PowerPause was motivated by Canada's steadily rising housing crisis, in which utility bills are becoming a larger share of monthly housing expenses, having surged 10 - 15% across provinces like Nova Scotia in 2026 alone. As University students facing $200+/month electricity costs in dorms and rentals, our team members have experienced firsthand how invisible energy waste, like standby power and poorly-timed appliance usage, silently erodes budget.

What it does

PowerPause is a web app (PWA-ready) dashboard that simulates an ESP32-based energy monitor system, delivering real-time household energy insights and accurate bill forecasts. It helps Canadians save on rising utility bills by suggesting immediate smart actions or carrying out autonomous actions. It offers dual-mode intelligence, with a free simulation-first design that removes the hardware cost barrier until users are ready to transition to a second deployment mode focused on autonomous energy management, reducing reliance on manual behavioral changes and turning savings into a default outcome rather than an ongoing effort.

How we built it

PowerPause is a Full-stack energy monitoring platform featuring:

React Dashboard	Flask Backend	ESP32 Simulation (Wokwi)
Live charts	Real-time API	Virtual CT sensor
Potential savings	NS Power rates	Weather-based recommendations
Projected Monthly Bill	****	****

Tech Stack:

1. Frontend: React + Tailwind + Recharts (VS Code)

2. Backend: Flask + SQLite + Pandas (ngrok deployment)

3. IoT Sim: ESP32 MicroPython (Wokwi.com)

4. APIs: Open-Meteo weather + Canadian utility rates

Challenges we ran into

1. No Hardware: Due to time constraints on delivery, we pivoted to a Wokwi ESP32 simulator that delivers the same "wow" factor, pure software with hardware authenticity.

2. Team coding medium preferences: Deciding on the choice of programming languages to be used for the page based on the knowledge and skills of the team members.

3. Analyzing the flaws of the project idea itself and selecting the problem path we choose to focus on to complete a presentable live demo.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

1. Team Contributions: the showcase of division of labor, individual brilliance, and collective efficiency.

2. Zero to MVP in 24 hours: from whiteboard sketch to a pixel-perfect React dashboard with live ESP32 stimulation.

3. Perfect whiteboard fidelity: 100% vision realized. Every screen from the team's sketches was built as drawn.

What we learned

1. Mentor feedback is gold: there is room for optional implementation, where focusing solely on software may not be enough for the project idea, but also being open to a hardware project (e.g., smart plugs).

2. Gaining further extensive knowledge about software resources available within our reach.