Were Danish eco-engineers channeling Theodor Geisel when they sprouted the FlowerPod, a Seussian digital flower home energy monitor? Maybe I’ve been eating too many green eggs and ham, but it looks like a cross between Daisy Head Maisy and the Lorax, who speaks for the trees.In reality, the FlowerPod is only a concept, one that would give kids and parents a fun, playful way to track their energy consumption at home, hopefully reducing their carbon footprint while increasing their environmental awareness. The virtual flower, the very root of a low-power wireless home energy management system, blossoms or withers depending on how much energy is consumed. The earth loves me. The earth loves me not. It's basic: the less juice you use, the more the flower grows; the more, the more it wilts. No grey watering necessary.
Design Nord’s budding FlowerPod concept didn’t garner more than an honorable mention at Core 77’s Greener Gadgets Competition 2008, nor at recent Smart Living competitions. But it’s a winner with my heavily plugged in kids, at least on the laptop screen, where it exists for now. It’ll debut next year inside of energy efficient model homes at upcoming International Panel on Climate Change meetings, but manufacturing plans aren't in full bloom … yet.
In the meantime, those of us looking to Kill-a-Watt around the house (and save the other kind of green at the same time) can get a not-nearly-as-cute, just as accurate visual clue from SmartyPants or PowerCost.
So, will the little FlowerPod-that-could succeed? I hope yes, yes indeed. "Ninety-eight and three-quarters percent guaranteed!" Yeah, I know. I’m reading way wubulus much Seuss ... "and I'll yell and I'll shout for the fine things on earth that are on their way out."
Who says flowers don't have power?
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