Solar-Breeze - Robotic Solar Pool Skimmer

Entrepreneurs who have business concepts based on sustainability and other environmental ideals will compete for as much as $5,000 at the Great Green Business Search on May 10.

Solar Pool Technologies is one of 15 companies selected by The Green Chamber to pitch their big Green idea.

One of the prizes is a People's Choice Award.

The event will start at 9am and run until 3pm May 10, 2012 at ASU's SkySong Scottsdale Innovation Center.  This is at the corner of Scottsdale and McDowell Roads in south Scottsdale.

Come on down.  Listen to all 15 great ideas and vote for us! For a list of the contestants, visit the Green Chamber of Greater Phoenix.

If you don't own one of these great pool skimmers already, get one immediately!

For big pools or small pools, you won't regret it, it saves you time and money and it's fun to watch it work. And wait until you see how efficiently it catches all the dirt, that swims around on the surface of your pool.

I was surprised to see how brave this  little machine is.  Sometimes I find even long pieces of palm tree leaves curled up in its collecting tray.  More than this, the machine's fine mesh filter catches all the tiny unwanted things such as dust, pollen, little bugs and other very small stuff, which you normally cannot even see, how much of it is in your pool and probably causes you allergies, irritations or just contributes massively to the pool's contamination.

And it will last you a long time, because of its sturdy construction and the super friendly and generous customer service, which is really willing to help, no matter what part of the globe you're calling from.

Aloha from Hawaii!  Dan, in the Hawaiian Islands

We love to hear from our customers.  Thank you for your kind words Dan.

A few years ago, the Riley family was gathered by the pool, talking science in general and physics in particular.  Braden and Kristin were 9 and 10 at the time when they asked, “Why do people heat a pool from the top when heat rises?”  Great question!

Sun warms the surface of the water but that heat is easily lost to the air.  Instead of recirculating the warm water from the top 12 inches of the pool, there had to be a way of taking that warm water down to the bottom.  They invented a simple device called the Heat Snorkel.

With this system, the warmed water is pulled through the filter and reintroduced towards the bottom of the pool.  As it rises, it circulates and warms the pool.

Salt is essential to life.  Without salt in your diet, many of the chemical processes of digestion and nutrient absorption are compromised.

What about salt outside the body – not consumed?  Sea Salt is touted to have all sorts of benefits.  Bathing in Sea Salts will help to detoxify your body, calm inflammatory skin conditions, slough off dead cells and generally leave your skin feeling more vital.  Does swimming in a saltwater pool have the same health and beauty benefits as bathing with Sea Salts?  The answer is all in the numbers.

A salt-water pool uses a chlorine generator to take crystalline salts and break them into Hypochlorous Acid and Sodium Hypochlorite.   The Hypochlorous Acid is the Chlorine that sanitizes the pool water and impedes the growth of algae and bacteria.  The two chemicals convert back into salt and then are broken out again as they go through the electrolysis of the chlorine generator.  While they are recombined, we feel the salt (NaCl) in the pool.

People argue that a saltwater pool is more natural and chlorine free.  This is a common misconception.

A salt water pool starts with crystalline Sodium Chloride (think table-salt).  It looks like this.....

The chlorine generator un-bundles the salt to produce Hypochlorous Acid and Sodium Hypochlorite.

Hi Guys!

Just wanted to share with you a picture of the awesome job my Solar-Breeze did after a windy day.  

We went out about 1:30 pm, and got home around 7pm.  It was not windy when we left, and I had emptied the Solar-Breeze the previous day.  While we were out, a storm came over and the wind got very strong.  When we got home I went to check out the pool and was very impressed.  I took the picture when emptying the Solar-Breeze, as I couldn’t believe how much junk it had removed from the pool in a matter of hours.  I should have taken a picture of the pool as well to show you how clean it was…   It even picked up a frog, but he jumped out before I got the camera. LOL  

1. To swim in.  Let’s get that one out of the way right off the top.  If you don’t swim, perhaps you should learn.  Not only is it fun, but it is a good survival skill.
2. Less grass to cut and gravel to rake.  Pools take up space.  Although they aren’t maintenance-free, they are less work than a lawn.
3. Water is soothing to look at.  The oasis-effect is undeniably peaceful.
4. Use it for testing in the “float or sink?” game.
5. It’s easier to explain the pool boy.

Why is it that January finds many families taking a serious look at their household budget?  Are there cheaper options for telephone?  Do you really need all those cable channels?  Should you change your time-of-day price plan with your electrical utility?  What priority does Prime Rib have on your grocery list?  For parents of college-bound students, there is that in-state/private college decision also.

Of course, we all want more money and there are two ways to have more money available for your lifestyle and/or your retirement.

1 – make more

2 – spend less

If you can’t increase your inflow, you can certainly decrease your outflow.  Start by sorting your expenses into four broad categories.

Your pool might be pretty cold, but is it as cold as the Northern oceans?  On New Year's Day, thousands of swimmers took the Polar Bear Plunge into freezing water. 

 Are they nuts? Plunging into water at 8 degrees Celsius (46 F) or colder!  Perhaps they are, but people have been known to do stranger things

photocredit:  Ted Weddell @ publicdomainpictures.net

The year 2011 will go down in history as a very difficult one from the standpoint of the global economy, but it will also stand out for the incredible explosion of interest in Solar.  More homes and businesses than ever are using solar energy as a source for electrical power. We all see the need to use more renewable energy.  Solar fits the bill for most of the planet.

Solar gadgets and devices have proliferated.  Some are just for fun.  Others fill a real need.  The Solar-Breeze solar robotic pool skimmer fits into the "need" category.  Even if current Solar-Breeze owners only reduced their pool pump runtimes by half last year,  the carbon equivalent of many hundreds of SUV's have been taken off the road.  The staff at Solar Pool Technologies thanks everyone who made this possible.

As we ring in a New Year, we look forward to connecting with more pool owners around the world and helping them to save time, money and energy.