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Reader Submitted: A Student Project that Reacts to South Africa’s Energy Crisis 

Enlighten is a student led project designed by five industrial design undergraduates at CPUT in South Africa. Enlighten addresses South Africa’s current energy crises incalm manner, a manner which hopefully brings awareness to the user without causing interruptions or distractions from their everyday life.

With the rise in technology use, people’s energy consumption is naturally increasing. Consumers need to know when their electronic devices are consuming energy. Appliances consume electricity on a daily basis whether they are on, off, idle or standing by. A substantial contributing factor to energy consumption is Phantom Load, a term used to describe the energy consumed by a device when it is not in active use but still plugged in.

Millions of cell phone users all over the globe consume phantom load on a daily basis, most without even being aware of it. A single device consuming phantom load may not be evident, but when millions of people neglect to disconnect their devices—which continue to consume energy whilst idle—substantial amounts of money is wasted on electricity we don’t even know we’re using.