Low-Cost Exterior Window Attachments

Problem: Tragically, lower income households actually fail to benefit the most from financial support for home efficiency investments. Low-income households spend around 16.3% of their income on energy, as compared to 3.5% in non-low-income households. To compound this issue, lower income citizens also tend to live in older housing that is much less energy efficient than newer housing. Therefore, energy programs targeting low-income housing often have larger energy and equity impacts than more general residential programs. Problem Solution: There is a need to develop a low-cost, easy-to-install exterior window attachment for low-income housing. This will have a dramatic impact on reducing the heat that enters homes and are especially effective in dense urban neighborhoods and cooling-dominated climate zones in the south which have some of the highest energy burdens in the country. Our Solution for Phase I: We will develop a low-cost, energy efficient exterior window attachment that is operated/controlled from the interior space and that can be installed easily over an existing window. The main objective of our Phase I project is to develop this product at a low-cost ($25-$50 per attachment), and that would reduce the energy loss through windows by at least 50% when attached to an existing window as well as improve indoor thermal and lighting comfort. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: In phase II or phase III, our developed exterior attachment will be designed and configured for all climates in the US and would have similar energy saving potential of at least 50% when attached to an existing window. Target would be to generate employment for at least 100 individuals and have cumulative sales revenues of $5,000,000 and licensing revenues of $500,000 during the first 10 years of commercialization.