Pop-up Warnings

We created a Visual Basic application to communicate with the homeowner’s meter. In it’s simplest form the software runs in the background waiting for the meter to send it a signal. Every once in a while (e.g., 30 minutes) the computer checks for a signal from the meter. If the AWARE@home system predicts that you might exceed your monthly target budget for utilities, a pop-up warning label appears, as seen in Figure 1 below. Depending on the status of your utility usage, the window uses color cues to indicate if you are approaching or exceeding your budget for the month. A custom icon for each utility is intended to identify the utility, without the homeowner needing to read the message.

Budget Overview

If the homeowner wishes to track his or her expenditures during the month, a tabbed interface presents the information in two ways – graphically and numerically. The main screen shows a budget overview, as seen below in Figure 2. Budget Used is indicated by a green progress bar, while Projected Budget Usage is indicated by an orange bar. In the example below Projected Budget Usage has been exceeded, which in turn changes the bar to red. Totals for Budget and Projected Budget are listed in two tables. These tables include total costs for each utility.

Individual Utility Usage

The status of each individual utility – Electricity, Water, Gas and Appliance – are shown in Figures 3a-d. Each tab is identical in form and function. A unique image associated with the utility allows a user to quickly glance at the status of their current budget – red indicating over budget, orange approaching budget – and the exact percentage of the budget they are using. Further details are listed in the box to the right: amount spent, projected monthly cost, use in last hour/day/week/month and budget set.

AWARE@home Settings

Our application has three working settings dialogs. Figure 4a shows the main settings tab, while Figures 4b-c show the Alarm (Pop-up Window) Settings, Budget Settings and Utility Rate Settings. Each dialogue gives the homeowner further control over the operation of the software. From how the pop-ups work, to budget goals, these settings allow the homeowner to tweak the software to their liking.

Usage Graph

A simple usage plot is included in the second to last tab, shown in Figure 5. As an example, water use for the last four hours has been plotted. Days are listed on the x-axis, while cost in dollars is listed along the y-axis. Multiple utilities can be plotted at the same time, allowing homeowners to visually see which utilities are costing the most, and when these utilities are used in relation to each other. If the homeowner wishes to manipulate his or her data, text files in Comma Separated Value (CSV) file format are saved in the AWARE@home folder, ready to be imported into Excel! This implementation is standard operation, and allows the homeowner to view historical data as they see fit, giving them further control over their utility consumption.