Beckon
WINNER: Silver Award
Beckon is an energy concierge app - your personal money saving assistant. It’s the fast, easy way to get a handle on home energy. Through Ontario’s Green Button initiative, Beckon securely connects with your home’s smart meter data and updates automatically every day. Beckon starts working instantly, providing you the insight and guidance to make better energy choices a snap.
Here’s how:
Avoid the peak, know when it’s cheap - Beckon’s Time-Of-Use alerts help you take advantage of lower prices and avoid overpaying.
The total price of power for any hour - Beckon factors in all the costs like delivery and taxes, showing you the total price you pay.
What the heck? Keep spending in check - Set a reminder amount for the month and Beckon lets you know when you’ve reached it.
See the all around breakdown - Your monthly spending and usage broken down in a way that simply makes sense.
Dare to compare - See how your home stacks up to similar homes near you, challenge friends and compete.
Smart scripts deliver personal tips - Beckon learns what’s important to you and delivers personalized energy saving tips.
The power’s out give em’ a shout - Information to connect with your utility about outages, conservation programs and more.
With time-of-use prices, electricity costs fluctuate throughout the day. Beckon keeps you informed as prices change with handy alerts. Based your preferred WiFi connection, Beckon remembers to only send them when it works for you - like any good concierge would.
An energy expert so you don’t have to be, Beckon decodes confusing energy bills. Delivery, transmission, line loss adjustment, debt retirement charge, regulatory charge, HST and the Clean Energy Benefit - all figured out for you. Since time-of-use electricity prices typically make up only 40-50% of the total bill, Beckon factors in the other charges to show you the total price you pay per kilowatt-hour.
Get the bigger picture in a glance and quickly spot your household’s spending and usage trends. Gain insight into the past, present and future months to get a handle on where the opportunities may be for improvement. See how individual cost items compare to the total monthly bill and usage broken down by off, mid and on-peak relative to total consumption.
How your home uses energy helps Beckon curate a library of energy conservation tips that include rankings based on the potential for savings and effort required. They can be easily added to your to-do list for when you are ready to tackle them. Need some motivation to act? Compare your energy use to homes nearby, start or join a team and compete in team challenges. Together we can be more effective with how and when we use energy so we stay on track, without compromising quality of life!
Basic information about your electricity provider is available in Beckon. We invite leading utility companies to get involved using Beckon as a platform to provide valuable power outage, restoration and customer service updates. Keeping Gridizens™ (citizens of the grid) informed creates a compelling opportunity for us all to work together towards a better energy future for Ontario.
FAQs
Why the name Beckon? Besides the idea of being beckoned the real inspiration is well known Ontarian, Sir Adam Beck. He was a successful entrepreneur at the turn of the last century. The cigar box maker, horse breeder and racer entered politics and donated his salary to worthy causes in his London, ON community. He brought power from the white coal of Niagara Falls deep into south central Ontario, revolutionizing the provinces economy and improving the quality of life for its citizens. He believed in sharing the possibilities of electricity with the people and delivering the fruits of our natural wealth at cost. Beckon is inspired by Sir Adam Beck, connecting all people (moms, dads, students, kids, hipsters and grandparents - not just utility account holders) with their energy. We hope Sir Adam Beck would be proud of what we are doing with energy in Ontario, and how the Green Button Initiative is putting our power in the palm of your hand.
Beck + Ontario = Beckon.
Why an elephant guys? For starters, elephants are revered and majestic, known to create deep emotional relationships; much like the ones we strive for with our users - who inspire us to to build great products. Elephants have the notorious ability to remember every detail, much like Beckon does sifting through piles of data to find and remember the things that matter most to the user. Just thinking about an elephant running across the Savanna is bound to make you smile, even chuckle. We know Beckon is a powerful app and more importantly, a delight to use.
Who built the app? Beckon has been created for the Ontario Ministry of Energy’s ‘Energy Apps for Ontario Challenge’ in partnership with MaRS. It is a proof of concept demonstration of what is possible by making use of the ‘Ontario Green Button Initiative’ connect my data standard. Beckon’s development was led by Ottawa based EnergyMobile Studios Inc., with support from Oakville’s Inovex Inc. and Paris’ Slide Communications.
Who sings that catchy song in the video? That’s Tim McMorris’ own ‘A Beautiful Life‘ - he’s a talented artist/producer/composer from Niagara Falls Ontario.
50 comments
Bruce MacDonald • over 9 years ago
Slick presentation (although hard to see of the apps features). I had to watch it a few times, but the app appears to have a few hiden jems (link to utility power outages) and I like the simple but effective user interface. It's a smart phone/tablet app which is in tune with the more likely users (modern & informed users). I like the reminders that it has. Most of all, I like the historical link back to Sir Adam Beck (if you don't know he was and what he did for Ontario, Google him) It will need a multi platform development - android, Windows mobile, bb, and older pc/mac desktop as well.
Tim Johnson • over 9 years ago
@macdonrb Thanks for your feedback!
The video is fast paced and likely a reflection of our coffee intake pre-deadline. Sir Adam Beck's story is definitely inspiring - one of our favourite Canadians!
-Tim
Devin Arthur • over 9 years ago
Amazing looking app, but not surprising considering their previous offerings! Voted for sure.
Tim Johnson • over 9 years ago
@lexcyn Thanks for the kind words!
-Tim
ParetoPatrick • over 9 years ago
Could this be the greatest consumer facing energy literacy tool in the world? I think it might be. I'm almost certain it is. Very cool.
johnmat • over 9 years ago
great design, snappy video
Tim Johnson • over 9 years ago
@ParetoPatrick @johnmat Thanks for the great feedback!
-Tim
trexterc • over 9 years ago
not as cool as minecraft but i like the challenge feature
LCorr • over 9 years ago
Love how this can be used to track my spending, and that it will send me spending reminders. This is what I have been looking for, when can I download it?
jooliah • over 9 years ago
Incredible job! Love the ability to compare to similar homes near you and/or compete with friends. Outstanding work on the look and feel.
Tim Johnson • over 9 years ago
@trexterc Agreed, Minecraft is very cool - have you checked out the uranium mod? Have a look at this awesome Nuclear Power Plant setup in Tekkit http://www.planetminecraft.com/project/fully-automatic-nuclear-power-plant-in-tekkit-minecraft/
@LCorr No hard date for the GreenButton Connect My Data to be live yet and we're as excited as you! Stay in touch with us on Twitter @Energy_Mobile - we live and breath this stuff!
@jooliah Thanks for the feedback! Lot's of coffee shop testing/learning with random consumers - humbling and wonderful at the same time!
-Tim
ScottMartin • over 9 years ago
Cool. You can't manage what you don't measure, or, conversely, you can better manage what you do measure. This app will certainly help me to better manage my utility costs.
Tim Johnson • over 9 years ago
@ScottMartin So true! Thanks for the feedback!
Kurt Frommann • over 9 years ago
This is truly the app that fills the gap. It gives Ontarians what they want - energy savings with minimal effort. Its obvious the intelligence and experience that went into the creation of this product... The design is beautiful and professional and the features give Ontarians what they actually want. Spending reminders, projected usage and spending... This will engage us and improve energy literacy across the province!
Ontario needs this app! Good luck!
Zaubermum • over 9 years ago
This is my favourite. I voted for it and put a link on my Facebook page too. You have restored my faith in the value of this competition.
James Whitfield • over 9 years ago
Looks both visually attractive and functionally useful, hats off to the development team. Indicates just for iOS, would hope to see this roll out for Android as well. Great work, you certainly earned my vote. Cheers.
Mike Branch • over 9 years ago
LOVE the UI!!! Great work. Also really like equating the app to a concierge - something that will actively help me with my home energy use proactively. Can't wait to see what the future holds!
Tim Johnson • over 9 years ago
@Kurtfro Thanks for the detailed comment! What can I say - we're energy geeks that focus on great design!
Tim Johnson • over 9 years ago
@Zaubermum Happy to have earned your vote and thanks so much for sharing!
Tim Johnson • over 9 years ago
@stereomike Thanks for the feedback and totally agree! In the spirit of the challenge rules, entries must stick to what was submitted so I won't comment on future plans and features in the forum. Connect with us @Energy_Mobile for more info.
Tim Johnson • over 9 years ago
@inovex Thanks for the encouragement! We build for users and our passion - glad it comes through!
Aaron Lindquist • over 9 years ago
This App looks great! In this age of online gaming, the challenge feature is a really great idea.
Tim Johnson • over 9 years ago
@alindquist Thanks for your comment! Just knowing how your home stacks up against similar ones near you can really help get a handle on things.
The 'head 2 head' challenge is a great way for friends or neighbours to compare usage and share what's working (or not) for them.
-Tim
branch3 • over 9 years ago
I'd use that!
jaybourne • over 9 years ago
Very smart app put into a very pleasant and intuitive package!