Energy Chickens enables you to explore, understand, and modify your energy usage!
Penn State and a team of dedicated researchers have recently developed a virtual pet game that references the user's actual energy consumption habits. The user is responsible for a flock of chickens. Each chicken represents an appliance within the user's office, such as a tasklight, a monitor, a coffee pot, a printer, or other similar device. The user is encouraged to save energy and reduce energy consumption by shutting off these devices when they are not in use. The health of each chicken depends on the users' energy usage - if energy consumption is reduced, chickens grow larger and lay more eggs. The eggs can be collected and traded for items for the user's farm such as flowers, bushes, or a garden gnome. Eggs can also be traded for accessories for each chicken such as hats, a scuba mask, and bandanas. However, if more energy is used, the chickens will become sick and will not lay eggs!
This interactive game is fun and informative - it has recently been deployed at PPPL with over 40 participants. It has sparked enthusiasm in the workplace and has helped bring awareness to the simplicity of saving energy.
Participants are asked to sign an Energy Pledge to reduce their office energy consumption by 15%. These pledges can be seen posted on office doors and hanging on office walls - they serve as a reminder of active efforts towards overall energy reduction. In addition, participants receive stickers of Energy Chickens with the phrase "Turn it Off!" which can be safely attached to appliances as a daily reminder to Turn it Off!
Project Coordinator Dena Lang from PSU enthusiastically introduces the game to a participant on PPPL's campus in October.
The game has many features including various viewing options, a nest to collect the eggs, a store where eggs can be traded for accessories, and a built-in tutorial to the game. There is an option which allows for the user to view a graphical representation of energy usage for each appliance. This alternative way of viewing energy usage adds an additional element of interest to the Energy Chickens experience.
Users are able to see a graph of their own energy usage as well as other participants in the office. Participant identification remains confidential as only energy usage data is displayed in various time increments including hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly.
The Energy Chickens game was prefaced by an Electrical Sensor Study which monitored individual plug loads to prepare baseline data for the Energy Chickens game. Participants were asked to fill out surveys regarding their satisfaction with their indoor environment. At the conclusion of the study, and the introduction of Energy Chickens, a raffle was held for participants for the chance to win a gift card to a popular organization. Here, researchers Dena Lang and Zoe Shaheen randomly select five lucky winners to receive the prize!
The game is projected to continue through March 2013 at PPPL and is hopeful to ultimately reach the market as an interactive interface to help reduce plug load electricity energy usage in commercial office buildings. If you are interested in learning more about the Energy Chickens Game please contact the Project Coordinator Dena Lang at DenaLang@psu.edu!
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