BreezeBlog

Those interested in the STAR-TIDES project may be interested in seeing some photos from this week's event at The Pentagon.

From my perspective one of the many positive things coming out of this project is the involvement of college students who get to think about the challenges facing refugee populations. How much better to get young people thinking and educated about the practicalities of providing practical aid than, say, a Fun-Run charity event!

We were delighted to have the SleepBreeze personal cooler on display, to be associated with, and continue our support for the TIDES project.

With so much of our product being manufactured in Britain we'd been looking around for a "Made in Britain" logo. Well, a Google search wasn't encouraging.

Possibly a reflection of the almost knee-jerk move in recent years to manufacture in the Far East? Try sourcing some components from anywhere but the Far East and you'll struggle.

But where there is a choice - components exclusive to our product - we've always chosen to manufacture in Britain. As I reported in August the downside of Far East sourcing is that the quality is sometimes not there. Forget the "product miles" for a second. From a purely practical point of view surely it makes sense to be able to visit your suppliers if they are based just a few miles down the road!

We were, therefore, pleased to learn about and be accepted as members of an organisation called British Made for Quality.

Call me old fashioned. Or maybe it was nearly 20 years working in the UK MoD on behalf of servicemen. Perhaps its the photo we keep in the office of my brother at "The Palace" receiving his OBE. Or maybe Simon Bates just played "Jerusalem" on ClassicFM. But there's something that just "feels right" about being able to put a Red, White and Blue logo on to our product.

Through our on-going support of the STAR-TIDES project we're extremely pleased to have been invited to display one of the SleepBreeze personal coolers at AFCEA West 2008

AFCEA West 2008 also marks, for us, a major goal fulfilled in that we have been able to provide a production line version of the cooler.

So, why are we there? Well, STAR-TIDES - short for Sustainable Technologies, Accelerated Research - Transportable Infrastructures for Development and Emergency Support (STAR-TIDES) is about sharing information and knowledge.

The major lesson learned post-Iraq is that taking territory is one thing. Holding it and reconstruction are something else entirely. So, in the future as much focus needs to be put in to stabilising populations post invasion as goes in to the taking of territory. Housing and utilities are one aspect of this.

Technologies, like the SleepBreeze personal cooler, like fuel efficient stoves, and like easily constructed shelters, are relevant to STAR-TIDES because they are affordable, low power, effective and transportable.

We also have to recognise that the logistics and the cost of providing accommodation for military personnel is expensive, complex and in many cases dangerous things to provide. Shelters need cooling. This takes fuel. Fuel has to be transported and paid for. Fuel supplies are often targeted by insurgents, costing casualties. So, cooling techniques that can actually save fuel have the potential for releasing cost savings and reducing casualties.

At a time when the UK population is being urged to renew it's covenant with their military forces we are proud to be offering a piece of technology which will go some small way to improving the lot of our service personnel when serving in hot climates.

AFCEA International, established in 1946, is a non-profit membership association serving the military, government, industry, and academia as an ethical forum for advancing professional knowledge and relationships in the fields of communications, information technology, intelligence, and global security.

People have been thinking about using Sleepbreeze's as an environmentally friendly means of achieving thermal comfort in offices. This got me thinking. Why would you do that?

Well the answer is pretty simple, but needs a bit of thought. Some years ago I was with a big defence company called QinetiQ. We moved offices from our battered (but loved) laboratories to state of the art open plan office accomodation.

A lot of planning went in to this move, in particular about the number of people, computers, printers that would be in the building. These were tallied up, allowing the architects to spec the size of the air conditioning plant needed.

It wasn't long before we started to notice that some people kept cooler than others, depending on where they sat.

Not a problem, thought the occupants - we'll bring in desk fans. The response from the architects was "Oh no you won't, the load on the air con system is finely tuned and won't tolerate it."

What they were getting at was the desk fans / pedestal fans / tower fans use about 60-100 watts, depending on their size. However, their efficiency is somewhere between 40-80%, depending on whether they are motor or belt driven. That means, roughly speaking, that for every desk fan brought into the building it was the equivalent of having an extra laptop or half a person dumping heat into the air con system! No wonder they got shirty with us.

So, getting back to "Why not use a desk fan to supplement air con", the answer is blindingly obvious. They actually put extra strain on the air con system, using up yet more energy. Granted, not as much as if you drop the temperature by an extra few degrees. But not the greatest implementation of what is otherwise a good idea.

If you want to go down the route of turning the air conditioning thermostat "up" to save energy and using local air flow to still maintain peoples' thermal comfort, then use a low energy fan!! Yes, there are ineffeciencies, ust as there are in a desk fan, but these are in proportion to the total energy used. So, 50% of our 4 watt personal cooler is 2 watts. 50% wastage of a 100 watt desk fan is 50 watts!

About 10 years ago I was at a conference in Yokohama and met Prof P O Fanger - famous for his work on thermal comfort. He was asked to reflect on changes we'd see in office life in the future. He proposed that fresh air would be pumped direct to each person, rather than through the whole room. Whilst he was actually talking about fresh air, as in O2 content, he wasn't that far off what people are now considering on the thermal side. Local air movement for personal, tailored comfort, leading to reduced operating costs and CO2 emissions.

We're delighted to be providing a Sleepbreeze personal cooler for the Bentley village fete this coming Saturday. Anyone going along, check out the "Greening of Bentley" stall and enter the raffle.

It's interesting to see how the various "greening" campaigns are spreading across the county. Simple measures that we can all take. And to be honest most of them would save us money and get us a little fitter. Can't be bad.

Let's hope that the weather holds this year. If it's anything like last year I may have to start a Sleepbreeze personal cooling + Umbrella Company!

And whilst we have an eye on the heavens, a warm welcome to Major Paul Moga of the US Air Force 27th Fighter Squadron who has been displaying at the Farnborough International Airshow and over my patio this week. Paul, have a great time over here. We enjoyed seeing you over the house. But could you have a word with the Vulcan and Typhoon chaps and get them to do a flypast? Anytime on Saturday afternoon would be fine - it'd add something to the fete!

All the best, Andy

Hampshire & Isle of Wight Sustabinable Business Awards 2008

We're delighted to have been short-listed as finalists for the 2008 Sustainable Business Awards.

More details to follow. And of course, "Good luck" to all the companies entering this competition.

Andy

Hampshire & Isle of Wight Sustabinable Business Awards 2008

We're delighted to have been short-listed as finalists for the 2008 Sustainable Business Awards.

More details to follow. And of course, "Good luck" to all the companies entering this competition.

Andy