Tendril, a Boulder-based energy startup, approached IDEO to help them develop a more user-friendly home energy monitor.

Talking to people about energy in 2009 wasn’t easy. There were lots of issues and challenges. But our design research made one thing crystal clear:

No one knows what a kilowatt hour is and no one cares.

So we set out to design an interface that both contextualized energy in a way people could relate to and a device that fit into their home in a way that overly techie previous products hadn’t been able to.

Our simple solution: make it a clock.

Show how much energy would cost in the coming hours. Show how much they spent on energy in the past, give them the ability to interact with their energy based on this information. And when they’re done, it’s still a clock (something people need anyway).