Made on Coboat

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Smart Energy App for Boats
Build an app to measure and control energy consumption on boats where power is limited
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Solution

Boats have only limited, expensive power sources which makes it important to understand what appliances and devices consume how much power to optimize the overall energy consumption. I am already working on an open hardware smart meter (http://www.openstrom.com) that would provide the hardware platform for this project. So the idea is to build an app that covers the specific use cases on a boat. This will allow to see energy consumption and better manage the available power sources on a boat.

In summary, what is your “Made on Coboat” project idea (max. 3 sentences)?

Research the boat specific energy use cases and develop an intial UI mockup. Use the Coboat environment to validate these use cases and get input from the other coboaters during a 2 week trip. Lastly use Coboat as an early user and showcase of the developed solution.

How much of your project can you realistically achieve in 100 days if you will get the chance to stay on the Coboat?

In 100 days, this project can be fully implemented (pending interest from early adopters), however I cannot commit to a 100 day journey. So I would rather use one 14 day trip to do some research on Coboat to understand the boating use case better and get some feedback on feature ideas and UI mockups.

Will you complete this project on your own, or will you be working with a together with a team?

While I will work on the requirements and mockups, I have a team that takes care of the actual implementation of the app.

Why should your project be chosen?

The project benefits the boating community and fits very well with the overall Coboat idea of collaboration.

What does this project mean to you?

I am exploring a lot of different smart energy use cases and boating is quite interesting as normally power is much more available. So people normally think about saving money when thinking about energy consumption. On a boat however not having enough energy because you left the AC running could result in your freezer turning off and all your frozen food has to be thrown away. In this environment making smart decissions about energy is quite important.

Why do you want to do this project?

Coboat seems like a great environment to engage with a lot of interesting people to share ideas and get feedback. Also being a coworkign space on sea means that there will be lots of people using a variety of electronic devices straining the power sources available. This is a great test bed to come up with a cool app to monitor and manage power consumption on boats.

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