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Press
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"Boxing Clever to make Shortlist"- Reading Chronicle - Business Review 29/07/10
"A clever and environmentally-friendly add-on to the letter box put a Reading Business in the running for a £50,000 prize from Barclays.
The Ecoflap, from Jessel Innovations, was one of three regional finalists in the south-west region of the Barclay Business Take One Small Competition where they narrowly missed out.
Anne Jessel, the company's partner and marketing manager said: "It saves heat loss, helps avoid damage to mail and to delivery people's fingers. It doesn't jam and is easily fitted without the need to change door furniture."
More than 3600 business's registered their ideas for Take One Small Step. Mrs Jessel said she was pleased with the company's performance in the competition and said they were doing well until the last few days.
Ecoflap is sold by 28 Architects, (Ed's note: misprint - should read 28 Resellers) and the company is planning to launch a number of new versions, including a cat flap which can act as an escape door for pets in an emergency."
In for Top Gong 03/07/10
Older
Mensa News 11/06/10
Homes4Media 09/06/10
Daily Telegraph Report by Sarah Lonsdale March 9th 2010
Unknown to JI! Ecoflap features in this article below
"Green Property "How to Draught Proof Your Home"
Mensa Magazine - March 10 Issue. Page 6
Last year we reported on how Mensan Richard jessel invented the Ecoflap, and environmentally friendly way of stopping druaghts through letter boxes.The Ecoflap is fitted inside the existing letter plate so your existing letterbox looks just the same from the outside, but inside you will be kept cosy by its draughtproof qualities.
Now Richard's company has joined Housing Association Adullam, whic specialises in providing support and accomodation for vulnerable people, and not for profit energy company Ebico, to provide the Ecoflap in Ebico supplied homes, in the Midlands, Merseyside and the North West....Brian Page (Picture front page. Richard with Lauren Ottley Sr. Marketing Executive Ebico)
Get Reading - February 5th 2010
"Couple close the door on draughts"
A Whitley company has invented an environmentally friendly device to do away with draughty letterboxes.
Richard and Anne Jessel are helping people keep the cold out with the Ecoflap - an interior letter plate draught stopper.
Made of thermal plastic, it allows small packages to be posted through and is retrofitted, yet never blows open.
The pair launched their product at the Ecobuild Exhibition at Earl's Court and it is already proving popular with housing associations, architects and door manufacturers.
Mr Jessel who heads up Jessel Innovationsd said, "it's not been on the market 12 months yet and we've already had to order two further consignments and another is on its way.
"The recent cold weather has been a very good test for Ecoflap."
Get Reading - January 8th 2010
"Get the Business- Jessel Innovations" - here
Adullum Homes & Ebico Join forces with Ecoflap - January 3rd 2010 - Find here
Mensa Magazine - September 09 Issue. Page 5.
"Richard's first class delivery"
Mensan Richard Jessel has invented a first class device to do away with draughty letterboxes.
The Ecoflap is an environmentally friendly way of receiving your daily mail and can be fitted to most standard letterboxes in minutes.
Standard letterboxes can be a focal point of heat loss in the home during the cold months, so Richard put his inventive Mensan mind to coming up with a solution. And he came up with making use of the wind to keep the letterbox shut.
The Ecoflap is fitted inside the existing letter plate, so your existing letterbox looks just the same from the outside, but inside you will be kept cosy by its draughtproof qualities.
Richard's company Jessel Innovations, put the Ecoflap through stringent market testing using extreme wind conditions, before launching it at the Ecobuild Exhibition in spring this year.
"The Ecoflap blends in with the issues of today, contributing to low energy bills.
He says, "It beats, not battles with the silent culprit responsible for losing heat - the letterbx hole.
Richard is proud of the fact that ecoflap is a british Invention. Other Jessel Innovations ideas include a "no touch" remote control panel for bathroom TVs for the corporate industry **
The company's intention is to continue to produce environment friendly eco products suitable for today's green society. Brian Page - Editor
** The control panel was designed specially for another company. Brian Page
Press The Earliest
Ecoflap Protoype Review (copy) - 14th November 08
I'm lucky lucky to have been given the chance to review the Ecoflap from The Letterplatem lucky to have been given the chance to review the Ecoflap from The Letterplate . I've been given one of the three pre-production models in existance in order to test it out at home and provide an independent review.
So, first of all the installation - I'm not too bad with a drill and screwdriver, and didn't have any problems with installing the Ecoflap. However, I had to rely on my phone's camera for the photos, so the photo's not the best.
I had to take our old (useless) draught excluder off the door which left some ugly naked wood around the letterbox hole, but it won't be a problem to give that a lick of paint at some point.
The Ecoflap comes with a hole in each corner for a screw, and a handy lip on the inside that locates neatly into the letterbox hole to ensure you've placed it level and in line. Then it's just a case of drilling some pilot holes in the door and screwing the Ecoflap in. It only took me five minutes start to finish, and the result is pictured.
This is a pre-production model, so it hasn't got the finishing touches that the production unit will include such as a rubber seal to ensure a tight fit to the door. Something I hope that the manufacturers will include on the final retail product is a template for drilling the pilot holes in the door - and hopefully they'll find a neat way to do this as part of the packaging without resorting to creating extra waste.
Nevertheless, I can confirm that the Ecoflap does stop draughts. It was a particularly windy weekend in Brighton last weekend, and I had the opportunity to do a fairly immediate 'before and after' comparison. With our somewhat flimsy brass external letterbox flapping in the wind, there had been strong draughts before the Ecoflap was installed. Afterwards, I couldn't feel a whisper on the inside, despite equally windy conditions.
I left a note for my postman explaining that we'd installed the Ecoflap, and I'm going to try to interview him tomorrow to see what impact (if any) it has had on his ability to deliver our mail. So, here ends the first part of my review with an endorsement - the product works as advertised. Once I've lived with the product for a few weeks, I'll update this post with my findings.
Update - 10th December
So, we've been living with the Ecoflap installed for about a month now.
We've had a wide range of letters and other mail through our letterbox and all of it has got through fine. I've spoken with our postman to check that he hasn't been inconvenienced by it and I can report that the Ecoflap works as advertised. It doesn't impede the function of our letterbox and it works very effectively as a draught excluder.
The weather's been pretty nasty over the last few weeks with wind, frost and rain, and I've been very impressed at how none of that weather gets through the Ecoflap. It's definitely helped keep our house warmer and hopefully saved some £££ along the way.
If you already have a letterbox that is effective at draught exclusion, this product isn't for you. If you put the back of your hand to your letter box and you can feel a draught, I'd recommend this straight away. It's made me realise where the other draughts in our house come from and motivated me to block some of those up too!
I believe the Ecoflap is currently still pre-production but will post a further update here when they're available to buy. Meanwhile, visit The Letterplate's organisation profile and click through to their website to pre-order yours today.
David Lockie
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