Visualizing Energy

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smahanru

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Hello all,

My name is Sasha Mahan-Rudolph and I am currently and product design student at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. I took 4 semesters of ASL and am very passionate about designing something to aid the Deaf and HOH. This semester we are doing a housewares project and my focus is to design something that helps the Deaf visualize energy, such as something that illuminates when a switch is turned on so you see it is on rather than hearing it is “on” (the oven fan, bathroom fan, etc). If anyone has any ideas or comments on this topic, it would help greatly. I also have created a survey for part of my research and if anyone wants to fill it out, feel free.

Thank you!,
Sasha Mahan-Rudolph
 
you know - this is a great start. However I want to bring up the fact that because many times a home or apartment already have certain things built in or included, its often cost prohibitive to retrofit something to make it a visual cue for many things. I am not talking about things that already existing in stores or catalogs and buy to replace. for example a bathroom fan can be replaced to have a fan include a light so when fan is running, light is on as well. I am talking about many things we take for granted, but we can have a hardship on our electric bill just because we cant hear things running so we kick ourselves when we realized we forgot it was on/running. For example the microwave that can be installed above the stove. It has a fan or a timer that beeps and we cant hear it when its done or running. The washer and dryer buzzes when its done. We have to guess when its done and walk in and feel if it running or not. The toilet flush keeps running if there is a problem with fill valve or flapper. (until recently there wa nothing on market until korky came out with a unit that you can install and will shut off water if it runs. ) Many tv's nowadays have a timer to run off the tv, but how many of you actually use the timer because its a pain in butt. One of my flat screen sony tv has a presence sensor that will turn off the video but leave sound on if not in the room.
 
Yeah, my wife often left her fan on in bathroom, so what I did I replaced the switch to allow to illuminate when switched on so she can able to see it before she leave the bathroom. Here's the link I use:

Clear Pilot Lighted Toggle Switch - Lighted When ON

Of course there are other things that we wished able to reconize something that it's running on, you know some day like Verizon or other company now have complete control of the house and will send you a notification that if something left running for while. There's forseeable event like that.
 
SneakerNet said:
Yeah, my wife often left her fan on in bathroom, so what I did I replaced the switch to allow to illuminate when switched on so she can able to see it before she leave the bathroom. Here's the link I use:

Clear Pilot Lighted Toggle Switch - Lighted When ON

Of course there are other things that we wished able to reconize something that it's running on, you know some day like Verizon or other company now have complete control of the house and will send you a notification that if something left running for while. There's forseeable event like that.
Click to expand...


Hey, would this work for my garbage disposal? If so is it easy to install. Our old garbage disposal was loud and shook the sink, but our new one is really quiet and I have left it on a few times.
Thanks!!!
 
Angel1989 said:
Hey, would this work for my garbage disposal? If so is it easy to install. Our old garbage disposal was loud and shook the sink, but our new one is really quiet and I have left it on a few times.
Thanks!!!
Click to expand...

Oh yes of course. It's a standard switch. Easily to replaced... but most important is to be sure to set the circuit breaker off before replacing it!

Added: The only two places that I use for lighted switch, one for bathroom and one for attic. Once a while when you closed the ceiling ladder and I kept forgetting to turn it off..so I installed this and it helped a lot.
 
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