Turning grid data into a light in your home
We built the Green Light Signal with Edelman and National Grid to solve a behaviour-change problem that energy messaging had never cracked: how do you get ordinary households to shift their energy use to cleaner windows without asking them to check an app or read a dashboard? The answer was to bring the signal into the room as a physical light.The system reads National Grid's live carbon-intensity API and translates the current state of the UK electricity grid into a colour. When renewable generation is high and grid carbon intensity is low, the bulb turns green. When the grid is running dirty, the light changes. No numbers, no notifications, no friction. The signal is ambient. It lives in your kitchen or living room and updates continuously, so the decision about when to run the dishwasher or charge the car is informed by real data without any cognitive effort from the user.
