How to Design a Battery for Flats
The core of our product is a battery system that shifts energy consumption from peak to off-peak. But that functionality alone isn’t enough to make a great product. As I discussed previously, we need to think about the total product. In order to succeed, we need to make sure our product is useable, sellable, shippable, installable, desirable and much more.
Why are we designing a battery?
The Windfall Battery was born out of our frustration that renters and people living in flats have no options when it comes to reducing their energy bills with green tech.
In testing that original hypothesis we’ve been evaluating existing small home batteries to see what works well and what doesn’t. We’ve discovered that there’s nothing that works for us. Whilst some existing batteries can almost technically do what we want them to, they do it badly, and the user experience is painful.
As we work towards developing our own battery, we’ve been running pilots with these existing off-the-shelf batteries controlled by our software. We’re doing this for several reasons. From a technical point of view we want to gather data to show that charging a battery at night and discharging it in the day works to offset peak electricity usage. We can then use this to validate our software models. We also want to test the more human-centred side of things. How do people feel about having a battery in their flat? Do people care more about saving money than being green? What’s it like carrying a 45kg battery up two flights of stairs?
As we better understand the constraints of existing systems, we’re feeding that into our development for what a battery for flats and renters should be.
Design Thinking
Good design isn’t about making a product look pretty. By thinking about our battery from the ground up, and designing it for our specific use case, it will not only deliver a delightful user experience, but it will make business sense. An intuitive and useable product is obviously what end users want, but it also reduces costs for installation, returns and customer support. Those are key things resonating in our discussions about energy company partnerships.
You’ve probably heard of works-like and looks-like prototypes. We have a works-like prototype; it’s not pretty. We also have a looks-like prototype, which we’ll show you next time. And in the case of a home battery, we’d be remiss if we didn’t test early on what a weighs-like prototype feels like. For the Windfall Battery our aim is to get it under 25kg, closer to 20kg if we can.
Using bricks in the design process
Our product will look great though. In recent months we’ve been collaborating with an industrial design team to help us bring the battery to life. Ben and Victor bring experience from designing consumer products for IKEA, Joseph Joseph, Honeywell, Samsung and many more.
We’re not making a big ugly box that gets hidden in a garage. The Windfall Battery needs to be useful, but equally importantly it needs to be something that people will welcome into their homes. I’ll look forward to sharing more on that soon.
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There’s a lot to think about and this is a complex endeavour. We need to make sure hardware, firmware, software, integrations, deliveries, installations, support, and more all work together in symphony.
A lot of tech products don’t always achieve that, especially in the world of IoT. We want to be more Nest and less Juicero.
We’re bringing together a team who can do this and we’re excited to bring this vision to life.
