FLEX/theINNOVATIONLAB ® 'Wattcher' = saving energy

Creativity can really make a difference in making our society more sustainable. That creativity is needed to develop a concept like the Wattcher. It is essential to create a design language that makes it accessible for people. And that creativity is necessary to develop a technical solution and an interface that works.

_{concept: Innovaders}_{design: Marcel Wanders}_{engineering: FLEX/the INNOVATIONLAB}_{electronics: Systec}

FLEX/the INNOVATIONLAB has been able to make the difference. Offering Innovaders a route from initial idea to a product on the market. Solving all the issues on the way and ending up with a product that delivers on the promise: saving energy!

Marcel Wanders has created a design that people love to see in their homes. Flex has made sure that it works properly, is easy to install and can be made for the right price. Systec developed the electronic hardware so the actual measuring is accurate and fast. For consumers it is a product that saves money. For Eneco it is a product that saves energy.

Research shows that people using the Wattcher change the way they use power. On average they reduce their energy consumption with more than 10% just because the Wattcher make their behavior visible. Eneco has looked closely at their customer's energy use. The conclusion: the Wattcher enables people to save up to 20%. With the Wattcher you have a choice to help leave the world a better place.

The big challenge in realizing the Wattcher was to come up with a universal way to measure the total power consumption in a home that would work on all the different energy meters. It needed to be a system that would be very easy to install and cost effective in production.
Simple forms are often not simple to manufacture and it took us a lot of thinking to find a way to translate Marcel Wanders's design into an mass produceable product.

Without a lot of prototypes during the process the Wattcher would not have been a reality. We needed appearance models to get the interest from potential partners. We used the prototype to find out how people would respond to the installation procedure and the user interface. Off course we had prototypes to find out if it would work properly. We even made a small quantity of 20 Wattchers to do some market research and find out if people would actually buy them.