Car Salesman Invents Passive Solar Heating Blinds

Solar power innovations don’t just come out of universities or national laboratories. They, like certain computer systems or seminal rock bands, are also born of garages and basements in any neighborhood in any town. The latest grassroots solar innovation comes from the mind and matter of a used-car salesman in Duluth, Minnesota.

Keith Mackenzie is a patent holder and owner of SolarChoice, the company through which he is selling his unique version of vertical blinds. From a distance, Mackenzie’s blinds look like any other set of blinds. In actuality, however, they’re hollow, with one clear side and a black aluminum strip running up the inside.

In essence, Mackenzie’s design is a variation on a solar chimney. The bottom of each blind is open so that cold air is drawn up into the blinds, solar-heated in the process and released as warm air at the top. It is basic passive solar design packaged as vertical blinds.

The jury is still out on how much energy the SolarChoice heaters actually save. SolarChoice claims the blinds can cut heating fuel consumption by up to 35 percent, but the numbers aren’t necessarily reliable. Mackenzie is currently corroborating with the University of Minnesota-Duluth for more in-depth testing.

The blinds hang in Mackenzie’s home in Northern Minnesota, and he has reportedly received plenty of inquisitive phone calls from hotels, schools, senior health care companies and homeowners. Price for SolarChoice blinds vary by size, but the largest version for sliding glass doors costs about $1,300. Is that cost-effective? Only time and testing will ultimately tell.

Much for SolarChoice and its inventive founder, Keith Mackenzie, depends on the university tests being conducted right now as winter tightens its icy grip on Northern Minnesota.

Source: Minnesota Public Radio News

Photo Credits: SolarChoiceHeat

Posted on December 8th in Solar Products by Dan.