| ‘Welectricity’: The Fun Way to Save Electricity—and the Earth |
| Monday, 28 June 2010 | Victoria Cho | Blog Entry |
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There is usually a gap between the amount of electricity consumed and the amount needed, a gap that has been devastating the planet. Herbert had built his career on minimizing this gap; as an energy-efficiency consultant in the Caribbean, he had provided ways and techniques for businesses to streamline their usage. But households didn’t use such consultants, nor did they have a yardstick with which to gauge their consumption. There was a need for a system of comparison. A need for household averages and guidance. He met this need with Welectricity. The project was selected as a winner in the 2009 Electricity Innovation Contest, which called for “unconventional solutions affecting Latin America and the Caribbean.” Through Welectricity, people can compare their energy usage online—for free. Users set up accounts and add information from their monthly electric bills. The site compares the user to other users with similar households (location, number of people, possession of certain appliances, etc.). Users add or invite friends (like with Facebook), and are encouraged to set goals in reduction, such as 5% or 10%. And they receive monthly personalized tip sheets to help them succeed.
With users from more than 29 countries, Samuel’s website has gained attention from electricity companies looking to offer customers specific methods of gauging consumption. The goal is for these companies to combine a Welectricity account with the customer’s billing record. The hybrid would allow monthly bill information to be automatically transferred to the user’s Welectricity account. By treating Welectricity statistics like other parts of a utility bill, monitoring one’s consumption becomes more than a social-media trend—it becomes a regular consideration as vital as any other household function. Samuel continues to promote and market Welectricity and energy conservation around the world, pushing the very insight that struck him a year ago: people simply don’t realize how much electricity they use. By connecting these people to each other, he also links them to the reality of how much power they waste, while motivating them through comparison and competition to do better. Additional resources:
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Comparing graphs, Herbert Samuel saw that his friend’s household of four used four times the electricity as his household of two. He put down the graphs. A family of four should only use twice as much energy as a family of two. Where were they squandering most? Where were they monitoring least? He went to his computer with an idea. 
Samuel realized that capitalizing on the social-media movement wouldn’t just bolster website popularity; it would also motivate people. By fostering friendly competition, people are given yet another (fun) incentive to curb their energy consumption. The site doesn’t just offer guidance from an external expert resource—it cultivates greater discussion and awareness of the subject among one’s peers, often a much stronger stimulus to action.
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