Customer Engagement Lab @ La Kretz Innovation Center
Los Angeles, California
The 'Vampire Power’ exhibit demonstrates how easily many devices in our homes consume power when not being actively used, and how a little planning, combined with the use of new smart tech, can help the average home save energy. The key objective for this exhibit is to communicate how little one needs to change in their daily habits to reap the benefits of reduced vampire power consumption. Key messages are delivered through a gamified experience, where guests are given pointers on how to “slay” vampires and gain awareness of the individual impact of vampire power within homes and throughout our collective communities. The game’s ‘Vampire Meter’ motivates players to navigate through each room of the virtual home to discover the impact of their energy-saving decisions.
A touch-display is the guest’s primary interface. Guests explore a digital representation of an average-size LA home and discover what devices are consuming electricity when they least expect it. Sixteen ‘active vampire’ devices are spread through each room of this digital apartment. The guests are instructed to identify and eliminate them with some simple steps. The lesson comes from the ability to toggle devices on/off, or by placing them on ‘smart’ power strips and seeing the immediate positive results on the virtual ‘Vampire Meter’.
About the Customer Engagement Lab LADWP’s Customer Engagement Lab at the La Kretz Innovation Center tells the story of how the nation’s largest municipal utility is working to provide a sustainable and reliable source of water and power to its customers now and in the future. Visitors will learn how they can partner with LADWP to make their homes and workplaces more water and energy efficient. Located in the LA’s Arts District, the Lab welcomes a broad range of visitors, from school groups and students learning about utilities, customers investigating water and energy efficiency programs, and government officials who shape our policies, to engineers gathering innovative ideas and technologies.