Hi guys, I wanted to point you at a couple of other gadgets which might be useful for Burning Man this year. I don't normally recommend commercial, non-commodity stuff, but I know the people doing these projects personally, and the gear is first rate. Please post anything you think would be relevant, but prefer stuff you've personally tested!
*First up, the Sleep Breeze Personal Cooler** *http://sleepbreeze.co.uk/ - made by my mate Andy Buxton. *What is it?* Basically it's a 12v fan on the end of a fabric tube. *Why is it good?* Andy's a biophysicist. He used to design cooling systems for tanks, formula one race cars, and Wombles. The way cooling works on people is pretty simple. We sweat, air movement causes evaporation, we cool down. If the air is moving fast enough that all the sweat is gone, the rest of the airflow isn't really cooling us. So Andy's rig has a slow airflow over a really wide area, in an ultra-low (4W) power package. *Have you used it?* Yep, I've had a pre-production prototype for years, and it ran pretty much continuously on hot days and nights when I lived in London. I'm living in Ireland now, so it's not like overheating is much of an issue (it's damn gray outside right now, I'm not amused!) When I was in El Salvador we ran it in a booth at a trade show and it made an enormous difference. *Second, the Mandarin Solar Light* http://illuminationhq.com/blog/the-mandarin-is-born/ *What is it?* A saucer-sized bright orange solar lamp. 12 LEDs, 3 rechargeable AA batteries, and a small solar panel. *Why is it good?* It's not just good, it's perfect. Five reasons: big solar panel, so one day's charge gives three days of light. 12 small LEDs gives a totally even field of illumination so your eye dark-adapts efficiently, so it seems far, far brighter than it is - perceptual biophysics again. AA batteries so it's easy to replace them after a couple of years of charging/discharging. Cheap, which counts - $8 retail in Tanzania. Finally, they're using the carbon credits schemes efficiently to finance the whole thing, and successfully lifting people out of poverty in Tanzania and other places. *Have you used it?* Yep, I've been using one as my primary bedroom light for months, and it works very well, even in Irish sunlight. It's a genuinely excellent piece of it. I should add a disclaimer - I did a couple of days work for these guys earlier this year introducing them to people I thought would like the light, so I'm not *absolutely* impartial, but I did agree to work with them because I thought it was great. They're not selling online in Quantities of One, but Sebastian (@semicharmedman on twitter) tells me that if there's a group buy, they'll provide them at $10 a light and ship a box over to whoever's handling distribution there. They're absolutely fabulous gear, and I can't recommend them enough. I do like having mates who make cool things :-) I wonder if in a couple of years there'll be some kind of semi-commercial production run done on the evaporation coolers, too. Hope you find 'em useful, Vinay -- Vinay Gupta Free Science and Engineering in the Global Public Interest http://hexayurt.com - free/open next generation human sheltering http://hexayurt.com/plan - the whole systems, big picture vision "In the midst of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer" - Albert Camus Twitter/Skype/Gizmo/Gtalk/AIM: hexayurt UK Cell : +44 (0) 7500 895568 / USA VOIP (+1) 775-743-1851 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "hexayurt" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/hexayurt?hl=en.
