In John Stapleton’s guest bedroom, the vertical blinds covering the wall of southern facing windows are pulling double duty. Besides blocking out the bright morning light reflecting off the snow covering Lake Bavaria, they’re also generating heat for his Chaska home.

The concept is simple: The sun hits the blinds, warming an aluminum slat enclosed inside. Cool air is drawn up the bottom of the sleeve and is heated as it rises. Air pours out the top of the sleeve, re-entering the room at 120 to 140 degrees.

“That’s the thing that captivated me,” said Stapleton.

Inventor Keith McKenzie presented the idea to Stapleton, a Chaska resident with a “reputation for working with emerging companies,” earlier this year. Stapleton said that McKenzie told him he had experienced a more than 30 percent reduction in his heating costs using the blinds at his home near Duluth.  Stapleton was intrigued and the duo quickly became a partnership that today is known as Solar Choice Heat.

They partnered with the University of Minnesota-Duluth to test the product’s efficiency. “It gets about five-and-a-half BTUs of energy per square inch in a day,” said Stapleton. On a typical 6 by 8-foot patio door, that’s 40,000 BTUs a day.

At $30 a square foot, the blinds aren’t cheap. That same 6- by 8-foot patio door would cost about $1,300.

“I don’t make light of the fact that it’s a significant financial commitment,” said Stapleton. He estimates the payback on the blinds would be about 22 heating months. The average user should save up to 35 percent on their heating costs, Stapleton noted.

But the beauty of the product is its environmental friendliness. “It has no carbon footprint,” said Stapleton.

“We’ve got a very serious [environmental] responsibility,” he added. “We’re seeing that now in Copenhagen.”

Stapleton said they are currently in the process of introducing Solar Choice Heat to a host of potential users including residential, senior housing, health care facilities and those in the hospitality industry.

“So far, we’ve gotten excellent feedback,” he said.

“We haven’t even begun to scratch this market.” Stapleton said they are also working on securing a location to do the contract manufacturing. He is hopeful that will be in Chaska.

Meanwhile, with the efficiency seemingly maxed on the blinds, they’ll begin to refine the product. Stapleton said they will “focus on the fashion” as well as on how to make them lighter and therefore easier and cheaper to ship.

-Mollee Francisco, staff writer