Good Gear & Gadget: Happy Lights

Happy Lights is educating our younger generation about the importance of leading a sustainable lifestyle.  Tim Holley came up with the idea to instill the concept of energy saving early in a child’s life with a light switch system called ‘Tio’.  Tio is a light switch that uses bright colors to show how long the light has been on for.  It shows “happy” green when left on for less than an hour, yellow for over 4 hours, and an “angry” red when the light has been left on for over eight hours.  It interactively teaches children the concept of energy conservation by allowing them to demonstrate their role as “energy champions” in their own home.  The personality of the angry red face encourages them to turn off the lights when they’re not in use.  The wall mounted light is connected to a computer program that records the child’s lighting behavior and they can use the web application to track their lighting performance.  It even relates energy usage to topics relatable to children like how energy affects trees, animals and the local environment.

You can also read more about Tio at http://timholley.de/tio