Danny Chan
The finalists of the 2020 AIRAH Awards have been announced. HVAC&R News continues its weekly finalist coverage with this spotlight on the contenders in the Best HVAC retrofit or upgrade category.
The award recognises excellence in the retrofit or upgrade of a HVAC system, and can address the complete delivery of a project. This can include planning through to engineering, documentation, procurement, teamwork, installation quality and workmanship, working in operational facilities, commissioning, fit-for-purpose outcomes and handover, including training and documentation. Products are not eligible in this category. The project must have been commissioned in the past two years.
The 2020 finalists are:
McClintock Engineering Group – Advancing HVAC in healthcare
The HVAC systems in three North Queensland Townsville Health and Hospital health facilities were upgraded to prevent mould growth, resulting in a new custom-designed, precondition outdoor air plant and changes to the Australian Mould Guidelines (AMG) reporting standard.
The McClintock Engineering Group worked with a laboratory and AMG to change the reporting process to include comparison reference to the World Health Organization limits, and to provide an overall ranking. This has now been ratified as the new reporting process for healthcare facilities.
Traditional dehumidification moisture content control measures in hospitals aim for 9g/kg (24°C/50%RH) to prevent mould growth. The team pioneered a design concept to achieve room moisture content to 7g/kg with large airflows, without compromising ideal chilled water splits across the active cooling coils while still improving energy efficiency.
IT Critical Systems – BHP Olympic Dam: DR site upgrade
IT Critical Systems was engaged by the technology department of a global mining company to upgrade the computer cooling units in one of the onsite data centres in South Australia.
The upgrade involved the complete removal of the chilled water system and replacing it with a DX solution. This had to be completed without interruption to room cooling, as the room was critical to mining operations.
One of the most critical projects ITCS has completed, it involved a remote location, an extremely critical room and a very harsh environment. It took 18 months to plan from auditing the room to final handover of the fully operating system.
The AIRAH Awards are going digital
The annual awards show organised by the Australian Institute of Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heating (AIRAH) will be held on November 10.
The finalists were selected following an independent judging process where nominations submitted by the Australian HVAC&R community were judged and anonymously scored by a pool of industry specialists within each category.
The winners will be announced at the online awards ceremony, as part of AIRAH’s Outlook 2020 International HVAC&R Conference. The conference will be a full-day virtual event featuring three keynotes, three panel sessions, five streams, a networking café, and over 30 speakers.
The AIRAH Awards 2020 will be held as a free-admission virtual event on Tuesday November 10 at 4.30pm (NSW, Vic, ACT, Tas) | 4pm (SA) | 3.30pm (Qld) | 3pm (NT) | 1.30pm (WA).
For more information and to register for the Awards Ceremony, please click here.
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