BreezeBlog

Now that the recent flooding in England has started to subside, the summer - at last - seems to be here. Over the last week we've had blue skies and lots of sun with temperatures in the low 20s.

Great for most of us, but for generations mums-to-be have found it hard going if their baby is due in the summer. The extra weight of the "bump" makes walking more awkward, which takes more energy - producing yet more heat. Hormonal changes apparently modify skin blood flow, making the body's reaction to hot weather less effective. Not to mention the nausea these hormonal changes induce! Throw elder siblings in to the picture and it's no wonder that pregnancy is no picnic.

Regular readers of this blog will know that Jill and I are expecting our second child in the near future. So, time to see how effective the SleepBreeze personal cooler would be. Yesterday, with temperatures rising and a hectic schedule, had left Jill feeling a little "under the weather" (ok, British understatement coming through here). Perfect for a "field test" of the cooler.

It took less than a minute to plug the cooler in to the mains and throw it on the bed.

Here's Jill's comments:

"It worked a treat and took very little time to cool me down. I felt much better and much cooler quickly".

Ok, we'd be the first to point out that this wasn't an independent test. But then again NO mum-to-be has the energy to give house space to a gadget that doesn't do the job! We're looking forward to getting feedback from more mums-to-be once we have the SleepBreeze personal cooler on the market.

Well, not so long after I put a post up about London Underground trains being stuck we see that Euro Tunnel have had the same problem.

"Hundreds of passengers trapped for 6 hours in 100F Channel tunnel"

Again the issues are the same, but this time there was additional heat dumped into the carriages by the cooling of car engines.

Essentially there are two things to get right. First of all there is the fresh air make up into the whole of the train and each of the carriages. I'm not sure how this is achieved on LeShuttle during a power outage. For safety reasons there are no windows that can be opened to let in fresh air from the tunnel. Clearly this was a problem as temperatures and humidity rose steadily. Obviously the carriages were not completely sealed as French fire service personnel boarded the train. However, it all comes down to the pressure differenetial that would drive air movement from the tunnel into the carriages. Secondly there is local air movement around individual passengers, which will help with cooling. Clearly as the passengers were travelling by car then there was the possibility of turning on the air ventilation in each vehicle.

Unforutnately, when the air is hot and humid, thermal comfort is never going to be a realistic goal. However, achieving "tolerable" or survivable conditions is.

As I stated in a previous post, local air flow could also be provided by a SleepBreeze personal cooler. For info we're planning on providing a power socket compatible with car cigarette lighters in due course.

As an addendum it was heart warming to hear that in their centenary year Scouts on board the train were handing out their own supplies of bottled water supplies to elderly passengers. What a terrific reminder of Part 3 of the Scout Law - "A Scout is friendly and considerate." I'd be interested to know which troop was involved if any readers happen to know, then get in touch.

The news seems to be full of safety recalls on goods manufactured in China. This week it has been toys, recently it was toothpaste, car tyres, pet food...

Readers of this blog will remember that earlier in the summer we tried sourcing one particular component from China. China wasn't our first choice but it seemed one component that was suited to Chinese manufacture. Readers will also remember that we were less than satisfied with the quality of the prototypes produced and in no circumstance would have considered moving forward into production.

Throughout the design phase for our product we've consulted closely with our local Trading Standards on a number of issues. As ever they were helpful and supportive of what we are trying to do. Regarding this particular component they recommended that we look out for one particular safety issue. Sure enough this fault appeared quickly in the prototype - hence our decision not to proceed with the Chinese manufacturer.

First of all I'd like to thank Hampshire Trading Standards for their insight - some might say bordering on clairvoyance - their guidance and expertise.

Once again we had to cast around to find a reliable, quality conscious manufacturer. We believe that our search is now over!

I'm pleased to report that we managed to find a UK company willing to produce a prototype with a view to taking it forward to manufacture. RBF Industries undertake manufacturing in a range of industries, including Health, Defence and Transport, as well as smaller concerns like our own. RBF rapidly took on board our requirements, saw the immediate issues relating to production and set to work. The first half-scale prototype was great and we're waiting for a full-scale version of the component to arrive any day now.

Obviously we're not quite there yet. The prototype will have to be translated into a production version with finalised design. We also have to negotiate on quantities, cost etc. As we mentioned in a previous post investigating Chinese sourcing did knock back the product launch. Although we've been delayed in bringing the product out we believe that maintaining a high standard of product is the most important thing we have to achieve. In selecting a UK-based manufacturer we believe that we will achieve this.

There are also spin-off benefits.For example, our products will travel less distance in component form - our equivalent of reducing "food miles"!

We'll keep you posted on progress on this as it is the last piece in the jigsaw before we move through to safety test and production.

We were delighted to hear from Vinay Gupta this morning that he and his partner, Lindsey Darby have won the "Participate!" contest run by TreeHugger.com

Vinay and Lindsey have been working on a project to design affordable, high quality refugee shelters for some time now. The project is "open source" so anyone can have a go building one of the shelters.

Having been involved on the periphery of Vinay's work - we have advised on thermal management issues - we are well aware of his passion for this project.

Well done to you both. You deserve the success and recognition.

Following on from a previous post, where we talked about the quality of components from China, we've been working with RBF Industries, a British company specialising in fabric products, on the final component needed for the SleepBreeze Personal Cooler.

We received RBF's prototype of the full-scale version of this component yesterday. As ever, the postman was a little taken aback by how keen we were to see him turn up at the house! "I wish all my customers were that pleased to see me", he said, handing over a package.

Unwrapping the component we could see that both the workmanship and technical solution were spot on. There's more work to do fine tuning the design, but we believe this is definitely the way forward. Well done to Mark and the team at RBF!

Looks like one more component that we'll be sourcing locally.

Many of the readers of this blog will know exactly what this refers to.

The annual Burning Man festival out on the playa in Nevada took place last week, finishing on Labor Day. For the uninitiated, check out the links below - I can't begin to explain it, even if I understood it myself!

This year's theme is "The Greening" of Burning Man. This year the "Burners" tried to become the first Carbon Negative city on the planet. Check out the Cooling Man link here.

Sadly, we weren't in a position to send coolers over to Burning Man this year, but next year...however,

...as a result of his success in the TreeHugger.com competition, Vinay Gupta was invited to build one of his Hexayurt shelters in the central pavillion area of the Burning Man camp. Vinay generously (very much in the spirit of Burning Man) invited us to include a poster display of the SleepBreeze personal cooler.

With Baby Tom still (?! ) making huge in-roads into the time we have to spend on the business we managed to get a poster together (in between feeds). So, thanks to the staff at Kinko's in Reno for helping out, and Lyndsey Darby for picking the poster up and taking it out on to the playa..

This in mind, it is somewhat sad that an individual decided that it would be a good idea to torch the "Burning Man" a few days early. So, the pavillion , located beneath the "Burnt Man", the Hexyarurt and our modest poster, were pretty much out of bounds.

In the meantime we hope that all the Burners had a weird and whacky time out on the playa. Hope that we can help you "chill out" next year.

Andy & Jill

We'd just like to say a big, big welcome to Baby Tom who arrived on Monday afternoon.

Thanks to all our colleagues, customers, friends, and family who have sent us such messages over the last couple of days.

And, of course, many thanks to the wonderful and supportive staff at the Royal Surrey who helped Tom into the world. We wish them every success in keeping the Royal Surrey hospital open in the face of cutbacks.

By way of a "thank-you" from us we'll be donating a number of SleepBreeze personal coolers from the first production run later this year for use by labouring mums.

Andy & Jill

Earlier in the summer we were able to post about the CorinTech facilities at Fordingbridge.

We were pleased to be approached a few weeks ago by CorinTech design manager, Tim Waterman, to include a write up of the part they played in the development for the SleepBreeze personal cooler for their new look website.

If you're interested in learning more, or seeing how Tim and the CorinTech Design team could help you develop your product, then take a look here.

Oh, and thanks Tim and the team for the "congrats" card marking Tom's arrival!