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Underway currently in Brussels is an exhibition entitled ‘Visual Voltage’. It is a collection of conceptual ideas which are meant to give an insight into how we use electricity. My two favourite pieces are below with more to be found here.

First up is the energy aware clock, which is designed to display the patterns of energy use throughout the household across a twenty four hour period, rather than displaying the time. I think myself that this actually looks quite attractive, and the visual means of the display is very easy to look at and grasp with just a glance, giving you an idea of your peak times of usage, and what sort of level your energy consumption is at even over very low use periods such as when you are at work or asleep.

My second pick is the flower light. A ceiling mounted lamp shade that changes shape in relation to the amount of energy being consumed. When energy use is low the ‘flower’ flourishes and will bloom opening up to allow more light and a prettier display, but if energy levels increase the shade will close into a cylinder, in turn affecting the quality of light emitted.

Obviously these are, currently at least, more ‘art’ projects than anything else, but I can see the above pieces fitting in quite nicely in a standard household, so who knows….