Help a household find and kill the standby power drains hiding in plain sight.

Exa

Tech partner

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Help a household find and kill the standby power drains hiding in plain sight.

Standby power quietly consumes 5–10% of residential electricity.

Set-top boxes, game consoles, chargers, and 'off' appliances draw power around the clock — but almost nobody knows which devices in their own home are the culprits, what each one costs per year, or which fixes are worth the effort. Awareness of vampire power is low, and identifying it is tedious.

Sep 1 26’

Challenge start

Build (31 days left)

Oct 1 26’

Deadline & Winners

What to build

Your Mission

Build an AI-powered solution that raises awareness of vampire power and makes it easy to identify and mitigate standby energy drains in a specific home.

Your solution should make standby consumption visible and actionable — which devices drain, what each costs, and the right fix for each: smart plugs, settings changes, or simply unplugging. How you solve it is up to you. Exa gives you the standby-power specs buried in manuals across the web; the rest is yours.

Start the challenge

How to build

Master the Challenge.

Scope

What Success Looks Like

There is no single right solution. You could take the problem in many directions — pick a specific user, a clear decision, and make that experience work well.

Tip:

Don't try to solve the whole problem at once. Pick a specific device category, household type, or awareness moment, then make that experience work well.

Support:

After signing up, you’ll receive kickoff instructions and access to the Discord for Q&A.

Requirements

Technical Challenge

Think about how your solution will identify which devices in a given home are likely standby drains, quantify what each costs per year from documented specs rather than guesses, recommend the right mitigation for each device, and make the invisible visible enough that people actually act. These are opportunities to explore, not requirements you need to satisfy all at once.

Tip:

Your solution doesn’t need to be production-ready. We welcome everything from early prototypes to fully working implementations and ambitious technical explorations.

Support:

After the kickoff, you’ll get access to the mentors’ chat on Discord.

Use of tech

Recommended Tools

Exa provides a web retrieval layer that might be useful here. Standby-power figures exist but are buried in thousands of product manuals and spec sheets — Exa's Contents API can extract them (PDFs included) and structured outputs can assemble a cited standby-consumption reference for the devices in a user's home, while search finds mitigation options like smart plugs and their real-world costs. Whether Exa fits your solution is up to you.

Tip:

Whether or not you use Exa in your solution is entirely up to you.

Resources:

Meet your mentors

Get a guidance from industry professionals.

Gain invaluable insights and support from seasoned experts who are passionate about driving positive change. Our mentors bring years of experience in tackling complex challenges, ready to share their knowledge and help you make a meaningful impact.

Start the challenge

Sep 1 26’

Challenge start

Build (31 days left)

Oct 1 26’

Deadline & Winners

Jury Panel

Put your solution in front of hiring managers.

Receive valuable feedback and insights from hiring managers and industry experts.

Submit your project

Community recognition

Winner

TBD

The winning project will be featured on Drawerrr’s Winners page and receive support, and exposure to take the idea further.

Community recognition

Finalists

TBD
TBD

The two finalist projects will be featured on Drawerrr’s Finalists page and receive support to continue developing their ideas.

Exa

If you choose Exa as part of your tech stack, the winner and two finalists will receive Exa.ai credits, exposure through Exa’s developer community, and technical support to help develop their projects further.

Sep 1 26’

Challenge start

Build (31 days left)

Oct 1 26’

Deadline & Winners

FAQ

Everything you need to know about participating.

Who can participate?

The challenge welcomes participants from all countries and skill levels, making it ideal for students and career switchers. Whether you're an entry-level individual with no experience or a seasoned professional seeking to broaden your expertise, this challenge suits your needs. We encourage diverse backgrounds, including scientists, designers, engineers, analysts, policy makers, community leaders, PR experts, economists, marketers, educators, and other professionals.

Is there a participation fee?

No. It's free for all participants.

How to get started?

  1. Create an account.
  2. Choose a challenge you would like to work on.
  3. Follow guides to solve the problem (solo or in a team).
  4. Submit your solution.
  5. Get the feedback from sustainability experts and results at the beginning of the each month.

Is there any deadlines?

You can submit your case at any point. The challenge results will be announced in the first few days of each month on the winners' page.

Can I participate as part of a team?

Yes, participants can submit the case as a team. There is no maximum number of team members, but we recommend up to five members.

How to obtain assistance from mentors?

You can find available mentors under the Connect page in your account. Mentor help is optional and not required to participate in the challenge.

Who will be evaluating submissions?

Submissions will be evaluated by the Jury panel, which will assess cases based on Innovation, quality of work and potential Impact.

Are there any awards for the winners?

The best cases will be published on the winners' page, and the team will receive prizes from our sponsors.

Can participants apply multiple times?

Yes, participants can submit multiple cases, either solo or as part of a team.

What happens after the challenge?

All participants maintain access to community chats, mentors, and network.

After challenge

Take it to the next level.

The Challenge graduates get the opportunity to connect with grant providers and organizations looking to pilot projects and take them to the next level.

Get started

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