SunShutters

SunShutters is a hassle-free, autonomous solar shade system to reduce the use of AC, and subsequently its carbon emissions, while protecting vehicles from extreme temperatures.

On May 20, 2022, a 10-month old girl was pronounced deceased after being left in a hot vehicle for several hours in Houston. Less than a month later, a woman was found unresponsive in her vehicle and died due to overheating in her car in Harris County. A few days later in the same district, a five year old passed away due to overheating after being accidentally left inside a vehicle for several hours. After hearing this news, we were devastated and shocked, and the more we researched these occurrences, the more we realized how big of an issue overheating in cars was in our community. A simple forget from a parent to take their child outside of their car would result in a young death, and this is catastrophic in anyone’s life as it may lead to trauma and mental health issues due to shock. The entrapment of heat creates fatal environments that mainly affect young age groups, and these deaths are projected to rise through the upcoming years. However, this is not the only problem that overheating in cars presents.

Throughout the past few decades, global warming has dramatically increased the temperatures in the communities we live in. However, one of the primary contributors to this issue is the automobile HVAC system, accounting for “about 107–121 hours annually, which is 43–49% of a vehicle's energy consumption” (Journal of Cleaner Production, 2021). This brings to an alarming situation as air conditioning becomes a vicious cycle. As air conditioning in vehicles requires more fuel to regulate the increasing temperatures, it produces more greenhouse gases that lead to global warming, creating a negative feedback loop that ultimately results in worsened climates.

Living in the Greater Houston Area, we are significantly impacted by this complication. Throughout the past summer season, Houston experienced its hottest summer, reaching an average of 86.7 degrees in June and 88 degrees in July. However, these temperatures are projected to continue rising throughout the next few decades. As a result, the usage of HVAC systems in automobiles is necessary to prevent overheating and heat stroke. Yet, when individuals are outside of their cars, solar radiation increases the cars’ interior temperature drastically as “in a parked car, the temperature can go up 20 degrees Fahrenheit in just 10 minutes” (UArizona Health Science, 2018). This number doesn’t stop there, as in summer, a car’s interior temperature can reach as high as 140 degrees Fahrenheit. This poses a serious threat to the car owner as the heat can cause severe health complications, such as cardiovascular and respiratory disorders, if not addressed. Therefore, when the car owner re-enters their car, they must over use their HVAC system, wait for the ventilation of hot air, and possibly perform a series of steps to cool down their vehicle faster. All of these lead to not only a major inconvenience but also addition of greenhouse gas emissions that ultimately contributes to global warming.

SunShutters is a completely autonomous car shade system that integrates material science, a smart system, and a mechanical system into regulating interior car temperatures in a sustainable fashion. 

Made up of aluminum and nylon, the SunShutter shades are structured and heat resistant, resulting in a long-lasting and effective product that combats solar radiation. Solar panels are also incorporated into the shade, layered in between the two materials with its solar cells on the outer shade surface. They are used to capture the solar energy from sun rays and convert it into electricity that will be used to charge a portable battery. This battery is the power supply for the SunShutter system and detachable. Users can utilize it to power either the shade system or other electronics. This feature makes our product incredibly sustainable because compared to traditional car alternator and battery, the electricity generated is from a renewable energy source. Our smart system will be composed of a remote control and main board to successfully operate our mechanical system. The remote control will send radio signals to the main board, and when it receives the signals, it will operate the movement of the shades to either close or open. The mechanical system is the centerpiece of our innovation. Based on a linear slide system, the shade will be attached to a slider that will move across a bar, establishing the opening and closing mechanism of the shades. Stepper motors, which provide high torque, will have gears attached to them that will operate a tooth belt that is attached to the slider, allowing for the movement of the shade. Limit switches will be attached to the end of the bar so that the smart system will properly calibrate the limits for slider movement and position. 

“Hot cars” have proved to be a severe threat to humanity time and time again. “In 2019, 46 children died in hot car deaths and in 2020, 24 children…” (National Safety Council). Combined with the fact that the heat can degrade cars' seats as well as the dashboard, it is clear that car overheating is a serious issue. However, these shocking facts have become the reality for many people, especially those who live in areas that are dry, receive large amounts of sunlight, and have high temperature climates. Rising global temperatures have contributed to this issue. 

So how do people in these environments cope? The fact is, many people are resorting to their car air conditioning systems, but these mechanisms are energy inefficient by burning and wasting large amounts of fuel that result in high carbon dioxide emission. “An air-conditioning (a/c) system can increase fuel consumption by up to 20% because of the extra load on the engine”(Canada Government). The supposable solution (air conditioners), although providing the cool air that people need, has disastrous effects on the environment and is costly as well. After careful analysis of these facts, our team realized that there needed to be a more efficient, sustainable solution that can work equally as well as the air conditioner to provide the natural cooling that people need living in these hot climates. 

Our fully autonomous solar shades are a sustainable cooling system that are perfect for anyone who experiences the burden of irritating temperatures inside a car due to excessive solar heat and radiation, whether it be in the summer, winter, fall, or spring. Our product, Sun Shutter, will be able to protect a car owner’s vehicle from deadly temperatures. According to the Paleontological Research Institution, “Average temperatures in the Southeast tend to decrease northward, which is simply the influence of latitude; lower latitudes receive more heat from the sun over the course of a year.” Due to this fact, the primary audience for our product will be targeted towards car owners living in the south and regions with hot climates. Even though areas that receive more sunlight throughout the year will see the most drastic changes with this product, any car owner, no matter where they live or what time of the year it is, will find this product useful, since even the smaller amount of solar radiation could have disastrous effects on the car’s interior.

A few years ago, if you had asked us about the sustainable development goals, we wouldn't have been able to give you an answer. We were aware of global issues such as poverty, racial and gender inequality, and lack of healthcare, but we didn't fully understand the urgency of the situation. However, last year, we were fortunate enough to attend our district's Global Issues Summit, where we learned about how organizations were tackling these issues in our local communities. We heard about initiatives such as donating excess food and proposing new legislation for our city's government. The summit opened our eyes to the potential impact we could have on global issues, and that's when our journey began.

Out of all the sustainable development goals, one in particular resonated with us. The excess emission of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels and the lack of sustainable energy in our community were contributing to rising global temperatures. We live in the southern United States, so we have firsthand experience of this extreme change. Many in our community are concerned about the endless heat and dry weather that makes it difficult to go outside. From having to sit in a burning hot car to not being able to go outside between the hours of 10 am and 6 pm, these issues are becoming our reality. That's why we want to create a product that reduces the impact of rising global temperatures in a sustainable and environmentally-friendly way.

At first, we didn't know how to approach this issue, but we soon realized that both of us are passionate about STEM. We decided to use our skills in engineering and technology to produce an innovative solution to help solve the problems in our community. Coming from a background unaware of the sustainable development goals, we hope to spread awareness through our product with its environmentally-friendly design. With our members’ interests in design, computer science, engineering, and business, our team was formed. Each team member has a unique set of skills. While one focuses on electronics, computer programming, and logistics, the other works on 3D modeling and material design. We work together on business planning, strategies, marketing, and logistics.

SunShutters aims to solve the issue of extreme temperatures for all vehicle users. The regions such as Arizona, Nevada, Texas, and Florida that receive long hours of sunlight and high temperatures will benefit the most. In some areas, the sun is out for up to “85% of the day,” and in others, even more (Moving). According to our interviews with potential customers in Houston, a major irritator is stepping into a hot car after leaving it outside. About 50% of them owned a manual sun shade, but nearly all stressed its inconvenience and ineffectiveness. These people are our target customers. It is crucial for them to have their cars protected from solar radiation that could increase their car’s interior temperature while being convenient for them to use. SunShutters meets all these requirements with just a simple click. 

We have already begun working with a professor at UT Dallas and an engineer from NASA to create effective and efficient design. In addition, students will continue researching and designing mechanisms that will be implemented into our project. 

Finally, we have already interviewed our community to extrapolate data to determine the impact of car overheating. We plan for community members to test out the prototypes and provide feedback on its effectiveness and what to improve. 

Most vehicles in the market emit large amounts of air pollutants due to the usage of HVAC systems and electronic devices, such as phone chargers. These emissions may expedite global warming, causing catastrophic impacts on the Earth’s environment. However, many people are unsure on what steps to take to fix these complications since most solutions in the market are inefficient and difficult to implement into their daily lives. In contrast, our product overcomes these dilemmas in a sustainable manner by autonomously regulating the vehicle’s temperature through solar panels, and thus minimizing the reliance on the usage of AC and other major gas emitters.

The mechanism will ensure that the user reduces the number of times the AC is turned on, due to its auto-regulating features. Over time, this practice will help largely decrease the car’s emission of toxic greenhouse gasses. If a car owner forgot or mis-positioned their current sun shades, interior vehicle temperatures would grow to over one hundred degrees, forcing the vehicle owner to overuse their AC. However, with our autonomous shades and cooling system, car owners wouldn’t have to worry about putting up their sun shades at all, and the internal temperature of the vehicle would adjust and undergo a substantial decrease.

The shades in our system will be powered strictly by solar energy, reducing the need to use fuel-generated electricity.  As solar panels contribute zero emissions to the environment and are one of the most sustainable energy resources, embedding them into our shades system will help generate electricity to power not only our autonomous system, but also offer excess electricity for car owners to use for other electronics devices. In today’s world, phone chargers can be found in many vehicles for consumers to recharge their electronics. But, not only is this detrimental to the environment due to use of fossil fuels for electricity, but it also requires the car battery to be turned on, which consumes unnecessary energy that could be harnessed more efficiently. With the excess electricity generated by our solar shades, car owners will have consistent access to a reliable energy source in their vehicle, helping to reduce total emissions. Additionally, if a car were to break down in isolated areas, there would be a reliable source of power for emergency situations. 

Our autonomous solar shutters solve a multitude of issues that have to do with gas emissions, inefficient use of electricity, and overheating in vehicles, but in a sustainable manner. With the use of solar panels as the only source of electricity, the design ensures that non-renewable resources such as fossil fuels aren’t being depleted. This conservation of resources plays a bigger role in decreasing the amount of greenhouse gasses that enter our atmosphere and is the next step into a more sustainable future.

2023 - Finish first patent, apply for trade secret, obtain funding for first 500 units, begin pilot phase to test out product in our community

2024 - Improve product design, use funding from pilot phase, obtain funding from kickstarter campaigns/investors, and begin to manufacture large numbers. Release marketing campaigns and being retail sales 

2025 - Continue to improve product design and begin evaluating partnerships with car companies. Analyze market and revenue to make improvements/changes to design, marketing, or manufacturing

2026 - Take over car shade industry and begin mass production of the SunShutter. Valuation at $2M 

The current solutions for car overheating include sun shades and window tinting. While both protect vehicles from harmful UV rays and help keep interior temperatures low, there are many issues with these solutions. Sun shades require car owners to manually place it under the windshield, which is not effective due to partial shading and inconvenient especially in busy circumstances. During interviews with school teachers and office workers, many stated that the major flaws of the manual sun shades systems were its cumbersome process to put up as well as its ineffectiveness at times due to human error with misplacement and forgetfulness. Window tinting also has its downfalls since it is highly expensive to install, changes the overall aesthetic of a car, and can be illegal in certain districts and states. After analyzing current solutions, we concluded that there needed to be a more effective and efficient system to address these issues.

Our solution is an automated multi-dimensional sunshade and cooling system for cars powered by solar panels to regulate temperatures inside cars and protect against UV radiation. Not only does this system maintain cool temperatures, but it also promotes the health, safety, and privacy of car owners and their passengers while also reducing the amount of carbon emissions from car HVAC systems. STEM principles will be applied virtually everywhere in our design. We plan to use the engineering design process to develop our solution by conducting in-depth research, keeping track of an engineering notebook, and creating virtual prototypes with 3D modeling. We will also use electrical engineering tools, like micro-controllers, heat sensors, bluetooth connectors, and GPS, to create a smart IoT system that will serve as the brain of our solution. We will use circuitry knowledge since our solar panels must be connected in a way to maximize the electricity produced and output into our system. To create our mechanical system, we will utilize servo motors, gears, and linear slides to move our shades. We will conduct research and understand fluid dynamics in order to create an optimized cooling system to regulate temperatures efficiently. In regard to our shades, we will need to have an understanding of material science, which involves research over which materials are the best at blocking out UV radiation and heat to maximize the effectiveness of our system. We will code in C++ to program the micro-controllers that take data from sensors and operate our mechanical system in order to make it completely autonomous for car owners. Finally, our team plans to code an app that will be synchronized with the IoT system, providing car owners with readings on battery levels, energy produced from solar panels, as well as car interior temperatures. Through combining a variety of STEM topics ranging from material science to electrical engineering, our system will be highly effective in blocking out UV radiation, minimizing carbon emissions from AC systems, and providing a better solution for car owners. 

We plan to serve around 500 people in our community by next year through our pilot phase to measure the effectiveness and usability of SunShutters. With these 500 initial target customers feedback, we will be able to properly assess SunShutter's potential impact on the world and continue to innovate and improve our design. 

Currently, SunShutters faces an issue with finance. As a tech startup, it requires large funding to begin creating units to sell and distribute to our target customers. Due to increased supply costs and manufacturing costs because of the recent pandemic, COVID-19, SunShutters lacks the finance to truly make a difference in the community and the world. Although we plan to work with partners in the future, we require a solid foundation for our business with good sales and profits to reach that goal. However, we do plan to begin working with potential investors through cold-emails, pitches, and kickstarter campaigns to gain the proper financial foundation required before SunShutters can truly hit the market.

I have already contacted numerous STEM professionals, including Dr. Cui from UT Dallas and Bob Doremus from NASA, to help verify our designs. 

I have also reached out to small and major automobile companies, such as Christian Brothers Automotive and Discount Lube&Tune, in hopes to partner with them to bring our project into market. Currently, SunShutters is still in the talks. 

The payer for this product will be the same as our target customer. Since our product neither comes pre-installed in a car nor involves any internal hardware change to be made, it will be sold through retail stores, such as Amazon and Walmart, that employ both in-person and online shopping. Customers would be able to purchase SunShutters directly online or in store, but as SunShutters gains recognition and positive customer reviews, our sales will steadily increase as well. Ultimately, SunShutters will grow as a common product for automobiles.

During the pilot phase, we will use direct sales to reach audiences. Our initial sales will be mainly targeted towards local community members. After selling 500 units, we will collect customer feedback to improve our design. Afterwards, we will transition to distribute products through retailers. We will endorse our product through auto magazines, local auto shops, and car shows to increase our customer base and use social media such as Instagram and TikTok to increase customer awareness across the nation. As we gain more profit and refine our technology, we plan to evaluate partnerships with major car companies to pre-install SunShutters as a feature in their vehicles, allowing for mass production and widespread use. We cold-called and interviewed people from car companies and local auto businesses, and many stated that they see high potential for success in the market for sustainable products.

To turn SunShutters into a business, we will launch our pilot phase and sell it to our local community of friends and families interested in investing. When considering all industry procedures, we estimate that developing the product and distributing it to the customer will cost $24 per unit. To pay for all the material and resources needed to build the first 500 units, we will use SBA microloans of up to $50,000, which is a good fit for our company since it is categorized as a startup. We will obtain the rest from angel investors. These funds will be used for buying parts, labor, machinery, marketing, testing, and selling and general administration. The second stage will consist of reaching out to venture capitalists to invest in our product for a fee. These investors will fund our company on a long-term scale, paying for much of our machinery and equipment.

The first set of costs comes from the materials needed to build one set of shutters. We broke down our costs into three main parts: materials for SunShutters, electronics/solar panel wiring, and linear slide system. All of these materials came from wholesale sellers to minimize production costs. The combined cost of nylon and a roll of aluminum was about $1. All the electronics including solar panels, motors, LEDs, microcontrollers, limit switches, PCB, transmitters/receivers, and buttons cost about $12. The cost of a linear slide system with the rod, gears, and belt was about $5. The cost for building the entire assembled prototype was $18. According to our research, once we bring our product to industry grade, it will have to go through several design iterations including changes to meet industry and safety standards. All of this may increase the cost by 20-40%. 

All revenue for SunShutters will come from either selling our product to customers or selling our technology to large-scale car corporations to implement into their own vehicles. Each unit will be sold for $50. After the pilot phase (500 units sold), our total estimated revenue will be $25,000.  

Through research, the costs needed for a completely scaled-up business will be the following. About 20% of our revenue will go into paying employees, and 15% into selling and general administration to manage all the non-technical aspects of our business. Design and engineering costs may be 5-7% of our revenue. 

By year three of this business, we expect to sell 150,000 units and therefore, the revenue accrued will be proportional. In the second attachment, we have included our business plan.