Hats off A former millinery becomes a chic and sustainable workplace - AIRAH
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OCTOBER 2021 · VOLUME 20.6
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Hats off
A former millinery becomes
a chic and sustainable workplace.
A I R A H AWA R D S – F I N A L I S T S
RISE AND SHINE
These leading individuals, projects and products have raised
the bar for our industry, and shone a light on the vital work
we do. Meet the AIRAH Awards finalists of 2021.
In another year marked by the pandemic, But despite this, widespread public are not just the leaders in their fields
the HVAC&R and building services appreciation of the HVAC&R industry – they are ambassadors for HVAC&R
industry has received more mainstream remains relatively modest. There is and building services to the wider
attention than ever. Ventilation and still plenty of work to do. population.
indoor air quality have been front‑page
By celebrating excellence in our The judges have spoken, the wait is over.
news, and issues with hotel quarantine
industry, the AIRAH Awards seek After months of expert and independent
have made concepts such as negative
to change that. Across all areas of evaluation, we reveal the finalists of
and positive pressure topics of
endeavour, the finalists in each category the AIRAH Awards 2021.
everyday conversation.
STUDENT OF THE YEAR – HIGHER EDUCATION OR RESEARCH
This award is given to a student demonstrating outstanding commitment
to their studies or research at any level in the HVAC&R industry.
Ashfaque Chowdhury, Affil.AIRAH – Central Queensland University
With a Bachelor of Engineering and a Masters of Engineering (Research) to his name, Chowdhury undertook a
PhD at the School of Engineering and Technology, Central Queensland University, completing his thesis in 2020.
Chowdhury has focused on the numerical, theoretical, and experimental aspects of sustainable and resilient
energy technologies. This has been applied in low-emission climate-resilient cooling, building system
performance enhancements, and thermal energy conversion.
Recognised by his peers as a great mentor of undergraduate engineers, and an excellent advocate for STEM in
high schools, Chowdhury has also been involved in developing flexible learning pathways for regional students.
Soha Matour, Stud.AIRAH – Queensland University of Technology
A PhD candidate at Queensland University of Technology, Matour has focused on designing a building facade
that save energy and reduces cooling load in warm climates. Although double‑skin facades (DSF) have shown
promise, in subtropical zones they can cause overheating.
Matour has explored a new DSF design that can take advantage of external slat-type shading devices and
wind‑induced ventilation for the DSF’s cavity.
Using her knowledge and skills in CFD simulation, Matour intends to extend her PhD research to the next level,
investigating the effect of the proposed facade on the indoor environment and occupants’ thermal comfort.
58 O C TO B ER 2021 • ECO L I B R I U M
Worth the wait
With COVID-19 present in the
GALA SPONSOR STUDENT OF THE YEAR – TRADE SPONSOR community and restrictions
DA I K I N LG still in place at time of going
to print, AIRAH has made the
difficult decision to postpone
EXCELLENCE IN INNOVATION SPONSOR PRODUCT OF THE YEAR SPONSOR
the AIRAH Awards Gala.
M I T SU B I SH I EL EC T R I C H VAC& R SE A RC H
The AIRAH Awards 2021 awards
ceremony will be held on
FUTURE LEADER SPONSOR WR AHERN AWARD SPONSOR Thursday, February 17 at Doltone
A .G . CO OMBS ECOL I B R I U M House, Pyrmont Point, NSW.
For the latest information, go to
www.airah.org/awards
Craig Pickup, Stud.AIRAH – University of Wollongong
A research student at the University of Wollongong’s Sustainable Buildings Research Centre, Pickup has
accumulated skills in renewable energy in buildings, advanced HVAC&R systems, and thermal energy
storage technologies. He also has direct industry experience, with three years of working experience as
a production engineer at Daikin Australia.
Pickup was part of the Team UOW Solar Decathlon Desert Rose house project that won second place
in the international Solar Decathlon competition in Dubai in 2018.
Through his Honours thesis project, he has also carried out research on phase change material thermal
energy storage. His current Masters project is on renewable energy in cold storage warehousing.
STUDENT OF THE YEAR – TRADE SPONSOR: LG
This award is given to an outstanding student at any level in the HVAC&R industry’s trade sector.
James Errington, Stud.AIRAH – TAFE SA/Copper Coast Refrigeration
After winning the AIRAH SA Apprentice of the Year Award earlier this year, South Australian fridgie
James Errington is looking to add another accolade to the trophy cabinet.
Errington recently completed his apprenticeship through TAFE SA while working with Copper Coast
Refrigeration in Moonta, on the Yorke Peninsula. The rural location has given him the opportunity to work
across a wide range of equipment, with a focus on commercial jobs. This includes installation, maintenance
and fault-finding with equipment in restaurants and pubs, supermarkets, and commercial premises.
Jason Evangelidis, Stud.AIRAH – Box Hill TAFE/CFM
After completing his Certificate III in Electrotechnology Electrician in 2020, Melbourne-based
Jason Evangelidis set his sights on dual-trade status. In the midst of COVID-19 and continuous
lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, while working with CFM in Melbourne, he has been able to complete
several modules of his Certificate III in Air Conditioning and Refrigeration at Box Hill TAFE.
Evangelidis’ training has given him an edge dealing with electrical issues, automated BAS, software packages,
digital and wi-fi controls, as well as the latest technology in control systems. He has also been praised for
his customer service skills.
Jessica Lonsdale, Stud.AIRAH – South Metropolitan TAFE/BHP Nickel West
Hailing from Western Australia, Jessica Lonsdale has already completed a Certificate III in Engineering –
Refrigeration Trade, and is now undertaking a Certificate IV in HVAC and Diploma of engineering technical
(HVAC) at South Metropolitan TAFE. She works for BHP Nickel West, which has given her experience in
both residential and mining sites.
Her wide range of skills includes service and maintenance of split system and package air conditioners, cool
room units, ice machines, supermarket refrigeration, industrial, and domestic evaporative air conditioning units.
O C TO B ER 2021 • ECO L I B R I U M 59
AIRAH AWARDS FINALISTS
FUTURE LEADER SPONSOR: A.G. COOMBS
This award recognises emerging leaders in any facet of the HVAC&R and building services industry.
Malik Awais, Affil.AIRAH
As operations manager at Johnson Controls, Awais is responsible for customer success across Australia and
New Zealand. As the company moves through its digital transformation, he has been leading the change.
Awais so far has trained more than 15 digital champions across Australia and New Zealand. He prepared and
created training material and, after the conclusion of training, continues to provide support to the team. He has
initiated a training program with Johnson Controls’ global training team to customise a program that suits
Australia. Awais is also involved in the development of the company’s graduate engineer program.
Iain Stewart, Affil.AIRAH
As co-founder and CEO of Exergenics, Stewart has demonstrated strong leadership skills, developing his
company from a start-up to a firm that now employs close to 10 people. He has shown a passion for improving
efficiency across the built environment, and has been involved in numerous industry mentoring roles.
Stewart is also a champion of the value in data-driven building optimisation as a tool to address climate change.
Stewart provides mentoring through the University of Melbourne Department of Engineering, and
has been actively involved with the Bright Sparks/Clean Energy Crew, with the goal of empowering
young people to be active participants in a clean energy future.
Alyce Wilson, Affil.AIRAH
Wilson joined the HydroChem NSW administration team at the start of 2018. Shortly afterwards, her leadership
qualities saw her promoted to NSW administration manager.
It was a pivotal moment for the NSW water treatment industry. The state government was in the throes
of making significant regulatory changes and Wilson was a key figure in HydroChem’s service team,
leading the administration process amendments in line with the new laws. She supported the sales team
and aided their transition in addition to her own reports, and was a key manager in leading the wider
NSW team through a challenging time.
EXCELLENCE IN INNOVATION SPONSOR: MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC
By developing new or significantly improved systems or plant and equipment or processes,
these finalists made substantial improvements to HVAC&R and building services.
25 King
– A.G. Coombs and Aurecon
Australia’s tallest engineered timber office building, 25 King has pushed boundaries in design,
construction, indoor environment quality and sustainability.
The project achieved WELL core and shell certification at platinum level, Green Star 6 star
design and as built v1.1 rating, NABERS 6 star base building energy, 4.5 star water ratings,
3.0 star NABERS waste rating, and Climate Active carbon-neutral certification.
The challenges presented by this large-scale prefabricated engineered timber construction
were addressed through the close collaboration and innovation of Aurecon and A.G. Coombs,
delivering a model for future HVAC design and installation in this sustainable form of construction.
60 O C TO B ER 2021 • ECO L I B R I U M
FINALISTS AWARDS AIRAH
Advancing Renewable Energy with Thermal Energy Storage
– Glaciem Cooling Technologies
This innovative project aims to demonstrate the technical and economic value of thermal
energy storage using phase change material (PCM) and renewable energy optimisation in
the commercial and industrial HVAC&R sector.
Conducted across three sites – in Queensland, South Australia and Victoria – the project received
$1.96M of funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to integrate more than
1.1MW of solar PV with 7.91MW/h of PCM thermal energy storage (equivalent to about 2.86MWh
of electric battery storage), controlled with a cloud-based control algorithm across three of the
largest HVAC&R sectors: process heating/cooling, commercial building HVAC, and cold storage.
Queensland Children’s Hospital – exOptima Digital Twin
– Exergenics
Exergenics modelled a digital twin of the 18MW capacity chilled-water plant at Queensland Children’s
Hospital using historical BMS data. This MATLABbased tool was able to accurately simulate the fluid
flows, temperatures and energy transfers through the chillers, pumps and cooling towers.
An optimisation loop was deployed on the simulation, seeding the model with thousands
of combinations of ambient weather conditions and internal cooling loads. The result was
an optimised control strategy, including chiller staging, chiller load balancing and condenser
water temperature algorithm. The energy-saving simulation showed a 7 per cent energy
reduction through the updated control logic.
EXCELLENCE IN REFRIGERATION
This award recognises excellence in the retrofit or upgrade to existing refrigeration
systems or the development of new systems, or in the industry’s delivery of services.
ARENA-WF Montague
– Glaciem Cooling Technologies
Montague is one of Australia’s largest fruit growers. Its new multi-use fruit processing facility
in Narre Warren North, Victoria, annually processes more than 300,000,000 pieces of fruit,
which are distributed to markets across Australia and the world. Glaciem has Installed the largest
CO2 heat pump in the Southern Hemisphere at Montague’s new facility, integrated with the
site’s new ammonia/glycol system and two Glaciem Thermcold DYN 900 thermal storage units
providing 4MWh of thermal energy storage.
The heat pump provides 714kW cooling to the site’s -4°C glycol loop while simultaneously
generating >80°C hot water and 1.1MW heating (heating water 35°C–83°C).
Fernhurst
– Scantec Refrigeration Technologies
This centralised, dual-stage, low-charge NH3 refrigerating plant services a 60,000m³
mixed refrigerated warehouse with batch blast freezing.
The combination of refrigeration technologies applied is believed to be unique globally.
This includes cold lake air distribution, automatic ambient air defrost, no air coolers within
the refrigerated space, stainless steel piping throughout, insulated coolers, no ducting,
dry‑expansion NH3 feed, automatic mitigation of NH3 leaks from evaporators, specific NH3
inventory 0.66kg/kW,
AIRAH AWARDS FINALISTS
EXCELLENCE IN HVAC&R RESEARCH
Tomorrow’s breakthrough products and techniques are built
on today’s research and development efforts.
Model predictive control (MPC) to improve HVAC operation
– Keivan Bamdad Masouleh
Bamdad Masouleh has developed a model predictive controller (MPC) to manage energy
consumption of HVAC systems. The proposed MPC controller has been designed to predict
the thermal response of a building (e.g., energy use) a few hours in advance and identify the
future optimised values of two control variables – supply air temperature and chilled water
temperature – to minimise the energy consumption of the HVAC system.
When compared with temperature reset energy-saving strategies (commonly used in practice)
in a simulated office building in Sydney, the proposed MPC controller provided significantly
higher energy savings.
EXCELLENCE IN DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
This award recognises individuals and organisations that have shown leadership
in their efforts, initiatives, policies, programs and practices to embrace and
foster truly inclusive levels of representation within their ranks.
Refrigeration Teaching Section Ultimo College, TAFE NSW
In 2020 the Refrigeration Section at Ultimo College ran a pilot program to offer Aboriginal students
the opportunity to develop a career pathway into the air conditioning and refrigeration trade.
The Career Start in Air-conditioning & Refrigeration program allows students to develop their skills
and knowledge in the trade by completing an entry-level qualification in a Certificate II program.
The program involved various stakeholders, including the ARBS Foundation, AMCA NSW,
Eora College in Redfern, and TAFE NSW.
The first two candidates to complete the program were proud Turrubul/Bundjalung woman
Lena Gill, and proud Nyawagi woman, Shivanhi Nair.
EXCELLENCE IN SUSTAINABILITY
This award recognises Australian initiatives that have made clear improvements
in the sustainability of HVAC&R systems or the HVAC&R industry.
12 Creek Street – The Annex
– NDY
One of Australia’s most prominent real estate groups, Dexus, led the development of a new office
tower at 12 Creek Street in Brisbane. The Annex is a 12-floor commercial building that is home to
offices spaces, retail tenancies and an exclusive landscaped terrace overlooking the Brisbane River.
The building was originally targeted to meet PCA Grade-A, 4.5-star NABERS energy, 4-star NABERS
water and 4-star Green Star building standards. However, NDY’s sustainability team worked with
the client and the builder to achieve a 5-star Green Star rating.
62 O C TO B ER 2021 • ECO L I B R I U M
FINALISTS AWARDS AIRAH
25 King
– A.G. Coombs and Aurecon
Sustainability was a chief consideration in the design and construction of 25 King St –
Australia’s tallest engineered-timber office building.
The building saves 74 per cent embodied carbon when compared to equivalent steel and
concrete buildings, has achieved a 46 per cent reduction in energy and a 29 per cent
reduction in potable water consumption.
To achieve the sustainability targets, the HVAC solution was designed and installed to
minimise the carbon footprint and to provide highly efficient operation, from the chilled water
plant right through to the design of the supply air diffusers.
Armadale Aquatic Centre
– PDF Engineering
The City of Armadale’s new aquatic centre incorporates a new geothermal pool water
heating system.
The existing aquatic centre was a smaller centre utilising gas water heating and had out-of-
date facilities and amenity. The goal of the project was to build a new complex retaining the
existing outdoor pool while adding a new indoor leisure pool, indoor 25m pool, indoor program
pool, and spa area. In addition to this, a new geothermal heating system was introduced that
will reduce the gas heating energy requirement significantly, and assist with Australia’s broader
transition away from fossil fuels.
BEST HVAC RETROFIT OR UPGRADE
This award recognises excellence in the retrofit or upgrade of a
HVAC system, and covers all aspects of project delivery.
ACT Schools HVAC Upgrades
– ESBS
The ACT government has set aspirational targets to reach net zero emissions by 2040.
Many schools in Canberra have high heat losses in winter. This presents challenges when
retrofitting reversible heat pumps to older schools, because the performance drops significantly
during cold conditions. For schools heated by gasfired boilers, retrofitting electric heat pumps
also requires expensive upgrades to the electrical infrastructure.
These projects demonstrated that replacing chillers that usually idle in winter with reversible
heat pumps that produce heating hot water that is circulated through the cooling coils
in winter, presents an innovative and highly cost-effective solution for displacing around
80 per cent of gas consumption.
HVAC Optimisation Stage 2
– Woolworths Group
Woolworths Group has delivered a large-scale HVAC hardware and control strategy upgrade,
covering supermarket sites in all Australian states and territories.
Hardware supplied from RDM Australia was utilised to optimise sites’ energy consumption
and obtain remote control and visibility of HVAC plant. All sites were connected to the
Woolworths Energy Management Centre for ongoing optimisation and analytic assessment
of equipment operation.
The key project deliverables were to achieve required conditions in stores for Woolworths’
customers and team members, reduce emissions, connect HVAC equipment for remote visibility
monitoring and data analytics, and reduce HVAC asset life-cycle costs.
O C TO B ER 2021 • ECO L I B R I U M 6 3
AIRAH AWARDS FINALISTS
The Hayesbery
– HDR | Hurley Palmer Flatt
Originally an old dye works, felt mill and hat factory built in 1921, The Hayesbery is now a flagship
workspace for real estate investors and developers Goodman.
The project transformed four neglected industrial buildings and linked them with a courtyard and
internal laneway, creating a campus-style flexible workplace designed to prioritise diversity, health,
safety and the wellbeing of Goodman’s people.
The project included sustainable design initiatives engineered by HDR I Hurley Palmer Flatt such as a
rainwater storage tank, solar panels, and efficient lighting and HVAC controls. This helped achieve a
5-star Green Star sustainability rating.
The University of Queensland AIBN Heat Pump Retrofit
– NDY
In alignment with the University of Queensland’s energy-neutral strategy, this project designed
a new efficient heating hot water system (water-cooled heat pump) to work in unison with
the existing electric duct heaters within UQ’s Australian Institute for Bioengineering and
Nanotechnology Building.
NDY and UQ collaborated and designed a system that integrated heating hot water coils into
existing selective supply-air ductwork systems, and applied chilled-water reclaim energy into the
existing precinct chilled-water system.
The project provided a dramatic efficiency increase in both space heating and dehumidification
reheat for the animal house, without impacting the heating systems resilience.
PRODUCT OF THE YEAR SPONSOR: HVAC&R SEARCH
This award recognises excellence in product manufacture within the HVAC&R industry.
Nominees must have been developed, designed and manufactured in Australia.
Air Purifier V3R Bio-clean Gel
– SAN‑AIR
SAN-AIR V3R Bio-clean gel is a powerful and effective anti-microbial technology that neutralises
airborne contamination without the use of toxic chemicals.
The gel is formulated with 100 per cent plant actives and utilises the unique Aerosperse delivery
method to spread throughout the entire indoor air space at low dosage. Independently tested
and validated to eliminate a broad spectrum of airborne pathogens including mould, bacteria and
COVID-19, it is safe for use in any occupied indoor environment.
Bio-clean gel is biodegradable, sustainable and cost- and energy-efficient, especially when used in
conjunction with air conditioning systems.
Kaire Unit
– Camfil
Kaire Unit is an Australian-manufactured multi-staged, combination filtration system designed
and tailored to control light to heavy kitchen exhaust emissions (smoke, grease and cooking
odours) for all types of commercial cooking applications.
Designed to operate at 1.85m/s, the Kaire Unit utilises three stages of particle filtration with
increasing efficiency to deliver a minimum 0.3 micron particulate removal efficiency of over
95 per cent (EN 1822.5:2009). A final odour removal stage uses activated carbon or custom
gaseous filtration media to effectively remove odour at an initial contact efficiency of more
than 99 per cent.
64 O C TO B ER 2021 • ECO L I B R I U M
FINALISTS AWARDS AIRAH
The McMonty
– Medihood
The McMonty personal ventilation hood is a novel technology that provides a physical barrier
between a patient and the surrounding environment. The ventilation hood creates a negative
pressure within the hood by actively extracting air away from the patient and filters expired air
through a HEPA filter. The ventilation hood focuses on elimination and engineering controls that
act to control the infection at the point source and isolating healthcare workers from the hazard.
Preliminary data reports that the ventilation hood is capable of removing more than 99.7 per cent
of particles larger than 0.Sµm and more than 98.1 per cent of particles smaller than 0.Sµm.
NEO
– ActronAir
The NEO touchscreen controller was developed with a project team spanning multiple
disciplines, including product and project management, electronics engineering,
digital product design, and embedded systems engineering. ActronAir also collaborated
with external industrial design company, Formwerx.
The development was managed using Scrum/Agile methodology to facilitate effective
collaboration between teams, while also developing clear, sprint-based objectives to
ensure constant focus on meeting project timelines.
ActronAir overcame the logistical hurdles of the pandemic by working closely with Formwerx
in effectively managing the supply chain. Clear timelines allowed the team to proactively
manage delivery of materials and services.
PEAK Platform
– CIM
ClM’s PEAK Platform integrates building analytics, artificial intelligence and technical engineering
support to improve efficiency, sustainability and comfort across sites and property portfolios.
PEAK Platform uses building data to simplify and accelerate the end-to-end process of fault
detection, diagnosis and problem resolution within existing HVAC equipment. It collects and
monitors live building data, leveraging algorithms to pinpoint, highlight and prioritise inefficiencies.
By facilitating a collaborative workflow with stakeholders, it helps resolve issues quickly.
It also provides visibility and insight to optimise site and portfolio performance.
INNOVATIVE USE OF RENEWABLE ENERGY IN HVAC&R
This award recognises initiatives that, through the innovative use of renewable energy,
significantly improve the performance of HVAC and/or refrigeration systems.
Advancing Renewable Energy with Thermal Energy Storage
– Glaciem Cooling Technologies
The lack of economically viable energy storage and smart technology is a major factor
in the HVAC&R industry’s heavy reliance on grid energy consumption.
This project represented a large-scale deployment of “smart” systems with thermal energy
storage (TES) based on phase change materials (PCM) across three of the largest HVAC&R sectors:
process heating/cooling, commercial building HVAC, and cold storage that are fully integrated
with renewable energy generation.
The systems are controlled with a cloud-based advanced control forecasting algorithm
that enables them to optimally manage the charge/discharge profile of the PCM/TES
and maximise end-user savings.
O C TO B ER 2021 • ECO L I B R I U M 65
AIRAH AWARDS FINALISTS
Advancing Solar Energy and Thermal Storage
– University of Wollongong
This initiative developed innovative solutions to advance the deployment of solar energy and
thermal energy storage in HVAC systems for energy-efficient heating and cooling. It delivered
innovative HVAC systems that used photovoltaic thermal collectors, phase change materials thermal
energy storage, solar air collectors and transpired solar collectors for energy generation and storage,
and developed innovative techniques for thermal energy storage design and energy efficiency
improvement of solar panels.
These solutions could be potentially used to increase building energy flexibility, address energy
efficiency, support demand response and assist to take HVAC off the grid.
WR AHERN AWARD SPONSOR: ECOLIBRIUM
This award goes to the best technical paper written by an AIRAH member
and published in Ecolibrium during the previous year.
Finalists:
“Change in carpark ventilation”
– February 2020 Ecolibrium
by Rob Lord, M.AIRAH and Emily Smith.
“Assessing the performance of fire sprinkler systems with fast-response heads”
– May 2020 Ecolibrium
by Firas Shawash, M.AIRAH.
“Effective integration of polymer plate heat exchangers
– A simulation study for evaluating their use in tall commercial office buildings”
– June 2020 Ecolibrium
by Arjun Adhikari; Professor Guan H. Yeoh; Dr Chris Menictas, M.AIRAH; and Dr Victoria Timchenko.
JAMES HARRISON MEDAL
The James Harrison Medal is the highest honour
AIRAH can bestow upon an individual. Named after
Australian refrigeration pioneer James Harrison, it
recognises the highest levels of
individual achievement in the
Australian refrigeration and
air conditioning industry.
The James Harrison Medal is
judged by the AIRAH board,
and will be announced
in October and in the
November issue of Ecolibrium.
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