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Inspiration: We noticed that within lower-income families that can qualify for energy subsidiary programs, many are just oblivious to their existence, if not how to apply. This is a relevant problem that we wanted to solve, as it results in the loss of a lot of money, which could be solved with a viable solution. That is why we decided to build a website that matches users with the programs they’re eligible with. This builds upon some existing solutions, such as applying via call, which wouldn’t be considered by many, since they would not know of the existence of such programs.

What does our solution do?: Our solution is a website that matches users with potential eligible energy subsidiary programs in Ontario, given certain information. How it works is that it has two options: either apply as a resident, or a housing provider.

Within the resident application, it prompts the user with a login feature, and to fill out various information such as their household size, yearly income and living details. Then our eligibility engine takes the information and matches the user to eligible programs. The user is then able to see which are available to be applied to, as well as their yearly savings, and a checklist of all the documents they need when applying via their respective program website. There are also personalized guides for users when they apply to the eligible programs, which includes information such as step-by-step instructions curated to specific programs, the order of programs to apply to and more to get the most out of the users money with zero guesswork.

As a housing provider, once you log in with your respective credentials, it provides the user with a dashboard displaying relevant information regarding their tenants such as total enrollments, eligibility checks, etc. This allows the housing provider to see valuable information regarding their tenants applications to various energy subsidiary programs.

How we built it: When building the solution, we decided on a website as it felt as a great option for what we wanted our solution to do, which was take user information and provide eligible energy subsidiary programs. A website makes it easier for users to fill out the information, and have it readily available when applying to the respective programs.

Throughout the building process, we went through implementing different features, thus requiring different software/tools. To start, our website is built with React/Next.js, and written in TypeScript. This allows for well designed components on the website, as well as being compatible with additional frameworks. For example, the eligibility form encompasses components such as UI designs with React and lucide-react, and simple navigation with next.js. This is also consistent within the other pages, such as the home page and dashboards.

Specific to the housing provider dashboard are visual components from Recharts, which add aesthetic elements to the UI.

Now, when it comes to testing the credibility of the website, we mainly used different inputs for the eligibility form that would yield different eligible programs. For instance, we used different household sizes, incomes and options to the program specific questions to test whether or not certain programs would be considered eligible or not.

Challenges we faced: One of the main challenges that we encountered was the depth in terms of our solution. At the base implemented the eligibility checker, but adding additional features was difficult. Our solution needed to include a revenue model, which would need to be encompassed within the website itself.

Our initial idea was to create a feature, only accessible when paying the premium model, where we would assist in filling out the program applications, via providing the necessary information they needed, or even just autofilling the forms for them. This proved to not be a viable solution, for a few different reasons. First, autofilling the forms is just not possible, especially with the risk of accidentally filling out incorrect information that could cost the users money. Providing necessary information was also an irrelevant solution. It accomplished nothing, as the user would have to input the information themselves.

To solve this, we came up with an alternative solution, which is a personalized guide. This guide assists the user when filling out the specific energy subsidiary program forms, as it includes information such as which programs to apply to first, and instructions for each specific eligible company, to maximize the most money possible.

This feature serves a similar purpose to our initial idea, but fits within the limitations of our solution.

Accomplishments we’re proud of: Aspects of our solution that we are pleased with is the overall depth of our solution. The website includes two different demographics, being residents and housing providers, which both require different components. We are also proud of the overall UI design and choices made. Especially since this can be a lengthy process, our website is genuinely eye-appealing, and incentivizes users to use our platform to help them save more money in the future.

Overall, we are most proud of the amount of progress we made within the allocated time. This includes a full form that prompts users with specific programs that they’re eligible with, a log in page for both residents and housing providers, and a quality UI design that is pleasing to look at.

What we learned?: We mainly learned how to build and implement components to visualize the solution we envisioned. This includes doing research on features to add, specific languages and frameworks that best suits our implementation, and how to navigate through challenges encountered when building our solution.

What’s next?: To start, an overall improvement that would benefit users would be the option to autofill programs that they’re eligible for. This is something that we are not sure how to implement, but it would elevate our platform to truly solve the main issue we are tackling. If users have the option to find which programs they qualify for, and can immediately apply, then they could very easily save hundreds, if not thousands of dollars annually within a few minutes. To scale our solution long-term, we would open the door to energy subsidiaries within other regions of Canada, if not the world. The issue we are tackling isn’t just within Ontario, but many parts of the world, so branching out would scale our solution to a greater level. This would also include potential partnerships with organizations similar to TCHC, which if it serves the same purpose, it could greatly save a lot of money.

Built With

• framer-motion
• lucide-react
• next.js
• react
• recharts
• tailwindcss
• typescript