On April 22, 2013 I posted three images. They probably seemed a bit dry. Those images were a semi circular chart that looked like a speedometer, some signs that had no real meaning, even after I explained them, and a rectangular image of lines and colors bars. The combination of these three items were intended to instruct our church membership on why we could not have the A/C on in every room at church every Sunday. This blog includes the pictures of the presentation itself. It worked like a charm. The visual imagery was combined with an effective explanation by Fred Allen, one of the principles in the Energy Project. People understood. And that was the intended result. Fred and I discussed the problem, then worked it out. I produced the imagery and he stood up and used those charts to illustrate the problem and the solution. Results.
The first speedometer chart was the opening analogy. Energy usage rises just like speed and there is a point where a certain amount is over our limit. The blocks with words on them were calculated to match the incremental size of the energy available to be used. So Base Usage takes up the right amount of space on the linear chart. We don't want to go into the red zone. If we have all the A/C on, in each room, at the same time, we end up in the red zone. It is one thing to tell people, but stacking the blocks of energy on a chart illustrates what happens.
The idea was simple once I figured out how to do it. The speedometer was mounted on black foam core. The energy chart was mounted on Magnetic white board. The blocks of energy are actually the same sort of magnetic paper that one uses for business card magnets. All of it is available at the nearest office supply store. Total cost was about $50 with printing.
