Electrical appliances are a staple in every household and are used every day. However, appliances with high energy ratings consume more electricity, which produces more greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases are highly harmful to the environment, as they are one of the leading causes of global warming, climate change, and many other environmental issues.
ApplianceDex has a database of different appliances, brands, and models to encourage consumers to make more eco-friendly decisions. The website shows the power rating of the product searched by the user and gives it a rating of thumbs-up, thumbs-in-the-middle, or thumbs-down to tell the user whether this product is eco-friendly.
Power rating, AI opinion if ecofriendly
For the front end, we used HTML and CSS to make and style the web pages. The search bar redirects users to the product they searched for and shows the product specifications and ratings. To determine if an appliance is eco-friendly, we used an API key to import OpenAI into a Python file. We then created a function that allows us to ask OpenAI prompts to determine the environmental impact of different appliances. Using BeatifulSoup and Selenium, we created an algorithm to scrape key appliance information. By using this algorithm, we were able to efficiently gather product specifications for our database.
We had some challenges implementing the API and algorithms as we were all fairly new to the technologies. Becoming more familiar with the technology took some time and implementing it caused some difficulties, as a lot of testing and tweaking was needed to create an efficient API and algorithm. The front end also caused us some difficulties, as a lot of time was needed to style the website to make ApplianceDex visually appealing and easy for the user to use. Lastly, integrating all the components proved difficult as we did not have any prior experience making a project with this many components.
Despite our experience level, we were able to complete all the components and combine them to create a functional website. In addition, our team got along well which made the process much smoother and enjoyable.
Through this project, we were able to deepen our understanding of languages we previously had experience with such as Python, and gain a newfound understanding of software such as APIs. In addition, we learned the importance of teamwork in a group setting. Making sure that everyone understood their task and had help when they needed it was a key factor to our success in this project.
The next step for ApplianceDex is to add a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) for the materials used to make appliances. By following the lifespan of the materials used to make the appliance, we can further improve the eco-friendly rating. For example, users will be able to see where the materials were imported from and which materials will be recycled or combusted when the appliance reaches the end of its lifespan.
Sakib Uddin - 1sakib.uddin@gmail.com
Farhan Sifar - fxrhan.s13@gmail.com
Prince Xu - princexu3@gmail.com
Eishan Ashraf - Ashrafeishan@gmail.com