Sparky, the ChatBot

Problem

There are many reasons to have an interest in energy efficiency, from simply saving on your power bill, to helping the environment by lowering emissions. But at the same time to have a healthy living environment that we can thrive in, we require heating, cooling, ventilation, and access to clean flowing water. And as more of society dives into the digital era with gusto, we need more than just the power it takes to run a heater.

We can see that there are many priorities that need to be balanced here, so how can we get easy and convenient advice?

Solution

Meet Sparky the Chatbot. Sparky is a Chatbot that leverages Artificial Intelligence, and uses Natural Language Processing in order to interact with humans. Sparky ultimately will try and suggest solutions to reduce your energy consumption  based on your circumstances or simply interact by sharing information such average bill around your neighbourhood and book and remind different governmental services.

What’s the spin?

The first difference is that Sparky is an API that can be hooked into Slack, Facebook Messenger, Service Provider website u other Government Portal. Regulators cna monitor conversations and improve answers in realtime through a dashboard. 

Sparky also uses AI to learn the circumstances and then provide expert feedback. He can use different datasets (such as the Australian Energy Statistics) to increase the amount of information used to narrow down the areas you most likely need to address energy efficiency-wise.

So, what can Sparky do for us?

1. Sparky will ask the user what area of energy efficiency they would like to learn about.

2. The user will reply with a particular area they are interested in, e.g. power costs, water bills, heating, cooling, etc.

3. Sparky will then ask if there’s any information about their city, council, weather etc that the user would like to share, and reminds the user that they can tell Sparky to get to work at any time.

4. With all the information Sparky is given, it’ll try to narrow down areas of interest for the user to help them cut energy costs and increase their energy efficiency.

For example, Sparky will ask:

• Is your house well sealed?

• Are there gaps under or around the doors?

• Do your ceiling fans have seals?

  • Do you hear the seals close when you turn off the ceiling fans?

• Is there a seal around your internal bathroom door?

• Do you have downlights?

  • Are they halogen downlights?

And suggest useful tips like:

• Bathrooms don’t need to be heated or cooled as we are not in them for long. Heating in other parts of the house can leak into the bathroom and be wasted.

• Sealing problems can be easily fixed by purchasing DIY products from your local hardware store.

• If you don’t want to do it yourself there are professionals who can come to your house and and do a blower door test to see how much your house leaks, they can also apply the seals

The sort of conversation Sparky could have:

• Sparky: Does you house generally feel hot or cold?
  • User: Hot
    • Sparky: If your house feels hot it is probably because you are getting sunshine in through your windows.
      If your house is getting too much sun through the windows you can apply shading.
  • User: Cold
    • Sparky: if you house feels cold, your house is leaking heat.
      If your house is leaking heat you can add more insulation or curtains to the windows.
    • Sparky: Can you access the roof space in your house, for example through a manhole?
      • User: I think so.
        • Sparky: If you can access the roof space, is there any insulation on the ceiling?

... et cetera.