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One-third of the energy consumed in office buildings is for artificial lighting. But most of that energy is consumed during daytime, and office buildings are effectively just glass boxes. So what would happen if people turned off the lights and adjusted the window shading to take full advantage of natural illumination?

That's called daylighting—and if done in every office building in the USA, would save 3 billion kWh of electricity and $400 million each year, while keeping 2 million metric tons of CO₂ from being released into the atmosphere.

Of course, people in office buildings are too busy to adjust lighting and window shading throughout the day. But inexpensive technology has long been available to do one of those two things automatically: daylight-harvesting lighting controls can dim or turn off the lights when there's enough daylight, and turn them on or brighten them when there isn't.

But the other half of the equation—automatically adjusting the shading—is a different story. Motorized blinds and shades have been available for decades, and they can be computer controlled to automatically maintain the right level of daylight. But that technology isn't even remotely cost-effective for energy saving retrofits to existing buildings.

So what happens if the blinds or shades aren't automatically adjusted? They're usually left closed to block occasional glare. In fact, numerous studies confirm that office-building windows are over-shaded most of the time, reducing the average level of useful daylight by half. That, in turn, reduces the average energy savings from daylighting by half, doubling the payback period.

That's a serous problem, because the energy saving retrofit market is notoriously sensitive to payback period. So, despite being available for over a decade, daylight-harvesting lighting controls are still used in only a few percent of windowed commercial floor area.

Daylighting's enormous potential has remained mostly untapped because there hasn't been a cost-effective way of taking full advantage of the available daylight…until now.

Introducing the IntelliBlinds™ Model D Miniblind Actuator

• Instantly converts any miniblind into a state-of-the-art automated shading system
• Does more, costs less, and is easier to distribute and operate than conventional automated shading products
• Does something that was previously possible at only three times the cost: self-adjusts to maintain the optimum level of daylight under changing conditions
• Doubles the savings from daylight harvesting while shortening the payback period by one-third
• Works with any daylight-harvesting lighting control, regardless of design
• Will be cost-effective in over 590 million square feet of domestic office-building floor area, with projected aggregate sales of $340 million and annual savings of over 500 million kWh
• Easy to manufacture and distribute—requires no specialized components, manufacturing processes, or installation expertise
• Protected by multiple in-force, pending, and applied-for U.S. utility patents
• Ready for commercialization now

This Site

Now that the basic R&D is complete, the next step is to commercialize the IntelliBlinds™ Model D and get it into operating buildings so that it can begin saving energy. This site is intended to introduce IntelliBlinds™ to people who may have an interest in seeing that happen—energy efficiency advocates/contractors, building owners/operators, daylighting researchers, and potential IntelliBlinds™ licensees, distributors, and partners, for example.

Accordingly, this site provides virtually all of the information on IntelliBlinds™ that can be publicly disclosed at this time, organized into three main sections:

Site Section Outline

	Description What the IntelliBlinds™ Model D does and how it works The key innovations that make it possible
	Application The target application: daylight harvesting in office buildings Why IntelliBlinds™ are a game-changer Projected savings and payback periods Projected market penetration, sales, and energy savings
	Status Development history and status Next steps Potential design trades

In addition, the FAQ page provides answers to many of the questions that have surfaced in direct discussions with people from this site's intended audience.

But there's a lot about IntelliBlinds™ that can't be publicly disclosed yet, too. For example, the latest version includes additional innovations that aren't yet officially patent-pending, so this site omits just about all the details of the latest prototype, including interior views, 360-degree exterior views, and videos and test data that show how the latest daylight control algorithm operates. That information will be posted here as soon as the pertinent patents are officially pending. Of course, parties willing to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement can also contact us directly for such information.

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Summary