20 November 2012 — Outstanding achievements in the heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration industry have been recognised at the 2012 AIRAH Awards presentation dinner.
The awards, held recently in Brisbane, focus on acknowledging and celebrating professional excellence in HVAC&R and help lift standards for the entire industry.
Chief executive officer Phil Wilkinson said the awards were an important part of the organisation’s activities.
“By acknowledging achievement among our membership, we raise the bar for the HVAC&R industry and beyond,” he said.
2012 winners were:
- Student of the Year – Ramadas Narayanan
- Future Leader – Jessica Holz – Umow Lai Engineering
- Excellence in Innovation – Air Change – Air Change Dehumidification Unit
- Excellence in Sustainability – NDY – Melbourne Water Data Centre
- Best HVAC and Refrigeration Retrofit or Upgrade – GHD – 4 Mort Street, Canberra
- Excellence in HVAC and Refrigeration Research – Dr Frank Bruno, Dr Martin Belusko and Steven Tay, University of SA – high-performing low-cost thermal storage with phase-change materials
- WR Ahern award for the best technical paper by an AIRAH member published in Ecolibrium – Dr Weng Poh for his paper “Tenability criteria for design of smoke hazard management systems”, which was published in the August 2011 issue of Ecolibrium
- Denis Joseph Award for Innovative Use of Solar Energy in HVAC and Refrigeration – CSIRO – TAFE NSW Hunter Institute – two-rotor solar desiccant air conditioning system
Chief operating officer Neil Cox said the success of this year’s AIRAH Awards started with “those who took the time to nominate their colleagues and recognise the excellence of particular projects”.
Air Change Australia and NABERS were individual award sponsors.