BreezeBlog

Ok, now technically I did say that the next post on this page would be to announce that the online shop was open. But last night I bumped in to friend & neighbour Trent Holmes. Trent is one of those guys who is a great sounding board for projects like ours.

Some time ago he was diagnosed with cancer of the mouth and throat. The story of how this came about is in itself a salutory lesson for all of us. Trent started to feel pain in his tongue and mentioned it to his dentist. The pain was being caused by an agressive tumour and he wouldn't have felt a thing if it'd been 5mm away from where it developed and the result wouldn't have been good. Surgery was fairly immediate and this was followed by chemo and radio-therapy. Trent is now recovering and is now able to speak.

As a "thank you" to the staff at St Lukes Cancer Care Centre at the Royal Surrey hospital he and his Harley Davidson biker chums are doing a 1000 mile round Britain trip in a 24 hour event. Trent, we don't reckon it'll just be your mouth that's sore after that!

Trent's main wish is that more people learn something about this type of cancer and that you'll be more aware of the symptoms. And he says "Visit your dentist - it'll be him that spots it!

Well, good luck Trent and glad you're still with us. Happy to give your marathon fund raising effort an airing on the BreezeBlog! Check-out the widget below to learn more...

Jill and I are really pleased to let you know that the sleepbreeze online shop is now open for business.

We'll be shipping from Friday 30th of May.

Quite a red letter day for both of us. Time to celebrate but also to remember the hard work that went in from all concerned. In due course we'll be putting a page up on the sleepbreeze site to give a big mention to those involved. Hopefully a mention for them and for what they are passionate about will go some way to thanking them!

For now we're using Google Checkout as our merchant accounting system. It's pretty simple to use - I'm no great shopper, but it seemed easy enough to me!

Serviced countries are currently the UK and US. If we get demand from other countries then that'll be great and we'll respond. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither are small businesses! So, one thing at a time.

We'll be adding to the pages on the website over the next few weeks. So, even if you buy a sleepbreeze personal cooler, then there'll be plenty of reasons to come back to visit the site from time to time.

We have coolers in stock. And for those people that emailed us they will get first refusal - seems only fair! If you find that the shop is temporarily out of stock we'll indicate when we'll next be shipping. We don't take payment unless we can fulfill an order from stock.

Finally, thanks for your patience waiting for the shop to come online. We had to get all the aspects of the product right and there's always something that has to be done that comes to light.

All the very best,

Andy & Jill

Well, the sleepbreeze online shop had only been open 2 hours when the first US order came through for 2 coolers.

We never reveal customer details, obviously. But a gentleman from the fine state of Virginia can claim to be the first person to own a sleepbreeze personal cooler in the whole of the US of A !

And as a memento of this occassion. Here's a photo of me putting it in the post to him this morning!

Sir, we value your custom - and it was a great start to our first day of business.

All the best, Andy

It's always nice to hear from people who have tried the sleepbreeze personal cooler.

One of those is Vinay Gupta, of Hexayurt fame. Vinay has been over with the STAR-TIDES team in El Salvador. Here's what he had to say....

"Andy,

I just had to write to tell you that the sleepbreeze is really amazing. Well done! As you know, we're at FAHUM in El Salvador demonstrating low cost technology for disaster relief. We have a sleepbreeze we have been running continuously on one side of the booth to show people energy efficient alternatives to air conditioning. Yesterday I started to complain about how hot and stuffy the convention hall seemed. Then I noticed we hadn't turned on the sleepbreeze that morning.

When we turned the sleepbreeze on, the whole area became much cooler and more pleasant. The gentle air flow carried over the entire 10 x 10 booth, subtly keeping us comfortable. We knew the sleepbreeze was good for cooling a single person lying beside it, but I was amazed to discover that a such a small, quiet, inexpensive fan could cool a whole area so effectively.

I really am totally amazed. The difference is that striking: before we turned it on we were hot and uncomfortable, after we turned it on, we were just fine. Not bad for 4 watts!

Seriously, Andy, this is *great technology.* I didn't realize just how powerful this microclimate cooling business is. Solid.

Vinay"

Vinay told us more....

"Yep, I'm the one in El Salvador standing around in a zero-air-movement-other-than-the-sleepbreeze-70%+ humidity room all day :-)

And, yeah, it is *really* amazing. I'm guessing that somehow the airflow stays laminar over the booth or something? I wonder if I can get somebody with a cigarette to help test it...

Anyway, whatever the reason is, in this time, and in this place, the effect is huge. People preferentially linger in the booth for the coolness. What's interesting to me is that I'd never have predicted it. My "intuitive sense" was that the sleepbreeze probably cooled you if you were beside it or two feet away. In practice - maybe because the air in the hall is so still - even eight feet away there's increased evaporation - stepping into the path of the breeze is noticeable even at that distance. So something really interesting and non-intuitive is going on there that I think is worth noting.

Yeah, I think you have a major breakthrough here. We just need to make sure it's most effectively communicated when you're on the market!"

We take it that Vinay likes the product.