Beam
A solar energy management system that optimizes cost-effectiveness and facilities energy sharing. Received an Honourable Mention in UX Design (2025 Student RGD Awards).
Timeline
Nov 2024
Team
Sam Overend, Jocelyn Zin
Tools & Skills
User Research, Product Design
Background
By 2040, it is estimated that almost one-third of the world’s electricity will come from solar energy.
This includes 10% from residential solar systems.
Solar energy is increasingly popular in home energy management systems. It harnesses renewable energy, saves money electricity bills, and reduces carbon footprints. As solar panels become cheaper and more efficient, we decided to explore how solar energy can be managed in smart homes.
Pain Points
Wasted Energy
Solar panels can generate excess electricity during summer, leading to a surplus of energy that often gets dumped.
Inconsistent Costs
With the rise of renewable energy sources, energy prices can vary greatly (even within a single day) due to dynamic tariffs.
Problem Statement
Users need a way to optimize their solar energy consumption based on cost-effectiveness.
Challenge
Our challenge was to create a physical product and accompanying mobile app to address efficiency problems regarding the use of solar energy in residential systems.
Competitive Analysis
How can we improve on existing products?
We reviewed smart home products such as Ecobee, EcoFlow Smart Home Panel 2, and Google Nest to understand how they adapt to user routines and support automation. While these products offered useful design patterns, none of them addressed the issue of wasted surplus solar energy. This revealed a key opportunity for Beam.
What can we do with excess solar energy? Sell it or save it to the grid!
Goals
Save excess energy in a portable power station
Check real-time battery status and supply levels.
Facilitate energy sharing and selling.
Manage temperature automatically through occupancy detection.
Smart learning to adapt to user's routine.
Personas
User Journey Map
Information Architecture
Design
Solution
Beam is a wall-mounted smart interface paired with a mobile app for monitoring and optimizing home solar energy consumption.
Daily Reports
Track home energy consumption with daily summaries.
Real-Time Control
Turn devices or entire rooms on and off from your phone.
Smart Suggestions
Adapts to routines to optimize energy usage.
Control Excess Energy
Sell or store surplus energy to the grid.
Flexible Goal-Setting
Edit consumption goals and device settings at any time.
Lessons Learned
Design can enable sustainable living.