Merging solar panels, a straw hat and a fan, this invention could save lives in Valley heat.

By Dennis Pollock
The Fresno Bee
01/09/08 22:14:45

About eight years ago, an idea came to Tommie Nellon as he was installing solar panels in Fresno's 110-degree heat.

"It was so hot we had to use gloves to pick up [metal] tools," he said.

The entrepreneur who runs a multimillion-dollar company decided then and there to put solar panels on a wide-brimmed straw hat to power a fan that could cool him off.

It took four years to find the right fan for the job and about the same amount of time to work through the patent system.

In November, he got a patent for a "combined solar powered fan and hat for maximizing airflow through the hat." Nellon said he expects to start making the hats soon and to sell them for $29.95 each.

He said potential customers could range from farmworkers to amusement park visitors. Nellon has made dozens of the hats already, and his workers use them on the job with his company Unlimited Energy Inc. in Fresno.

"There was a guy who offered me $100 for a hat," Nellon said, displaying the slightly tattered one he has worn the past three years.

 Others have been stolen, he said, and one guy joked in San Diego that he might "beat me up if I didn't turn over the hat."

Before looking into a patent, Nellon commissioned a report by Invention Submission Corp., which has a Fresno office, to search for patents and to look at the prospects for selling the invention.

Tim Stearns, director of the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at California State University, Fresno, said securing a patent doesn't assure that a product will sell.

"Less than 1% of all patents get to the marketplace," Stearns said. "The patent means the idea was unique. It's not based on whether it will sell."

But he said the hat shows promise.

Stearns said Nellon's hat does a good job of addressing "the pain" of working in hot conditions.

However, Stearns said he thinks Nellon would be wise to get more opinions before launching production: "Give them out at construction sites. Then go back in a week or two and see if people are still wearing them. Get as much objective evaluation as you can."

As for the hat? It's broad-brimmed and made of light straw.

Nellon said he found the right type by visiting rural stores where, a few years ago, they sold for $3. Now they're $9.

In the front, a small -- and very light -- plastic fan is mounted, similar to the type used to cool computers. The fans are made in China by a company Nellon declines to identify. At the rear of the hat is an opening that allows the air to exhaust.

Four strips -- each 3 inches by 7 inches -- on the hat's wide brim power the fan. They're made by Thin Film Technologies, based in Boone County, Iowa, which also supplies the thin, lightweight -- and foldable -- solar collector strips for use on U.S. military tents and to power fans, lights, radios and laptops.

Patent materials note that Nellon's hat is different. Unlike many others, which direct the air to the wearer's face, his design blows air across the top of the head. Patent documents say it "reduces the incidence of heat exhaustion [and] heatstroke."

Nellon said he has invested about $15,000 in the project, including the cost of travel to China to visit the fan manufacturer and to look into producing the hat there.

"If it were produced here, it would have to sell for $70 to $80," Nellon said. However, he said a client for Unlimited Energy is trying to find a U.S. manufacturer.

Nellon said he would like to sell it through mom-and-pop stores, though he would consider major retailers.

Will he succeed? He's done it before, starting Unlimited Energy in the mid-1980s with a part-time worker. The company has grown to 32 employees, and his clients last year included the Chinatown Branch Library in San Francisco and the Fresno Adventist Academy in Fresno. The company does as many as 300 installations a year.

The reporter can be reached at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it or (559) 441-6364.