Danny Chan
To round out our profiles of 2020 AIRAH Awards finalists, we take a look at the Product of the Year category.
Sponsored by HVAC&R Search, the Product of the Year award recognises excellence in product manufacture within the HVAC&R industry. Nominees are assessed for features such as innovation, energy efficiency, sustainability, originality and industry need.
Eligible products must have been developed, designed and manufactured in Australia. This award recognises new products only and does not include updates to existing products or products that have been previously nominated for an AIRAH award.
“The Product of the Year award is an all-encompassing one that celebrates the outstanding qualities and achievements of Australian-made products in our field,” says AIRAH CEO Tony Gleeson, M.AIRAH.
“On behalf of AIRAH and HVAC&R consumers at large, I applaud all the finalists for their talents, hard work and ingenious contributions.”
The 2020 finalists for Product of the Year are:
Seeley – Breezair Extraordinaire
Breezair Extraordinaire is an evaporative air conditioner that showcases Seeley International’s innovation and ability to develop products in response to modern consumer needs.
The company describes the unit as “a true game-changer for global domestic cooling”. It combines the Breezair brand of evaporative cooling with next-generation technology, design and manufacture.
The design of the Breezair Extraordinaire allows it to be mounted flush to roofs. According to Seeley, it outperforms all competitors in cooling capacity, airflow, quietness and also aesthetics.
“This beautifully crafted, single-piece cabinet is an industry first,” says the company, “and heralds the biggest design change to evaporative cooling since Seeley International founder/executive chairman Frank Seeley, Affil.AIRAH, first developed the all‑plastic cooler back in the 1970s.”
Temperzone – OPA Eco Ultra
The new series offers advanced dew-point control, preventing sudden temperature shifts when demand for cooling or heating is required. “Instead of providing 100 per cent capacity at the time of demand, intuitive steps and measures are made to condition the space,” says Temperzone.
“This approach also greatly benefits energy consumption, as the unit will be running in part load where high efficiencies are made. The system automatically switches between modes as required.”
The OPA Eco Ultra series can run on R32 refrigerant, which Temperzone says makes it the only unit of its size and type on the market with this option.
Air Change – Precise Control Units
Precise Control Units (PCUs) use the cool and reheat principle for temperature and humidity control.
The first stage of the process involves precisely cooling the intake air through an evaporator coil to the required supply-air moisture content. This intake air can be 100 per cent outside air, 100 per cent return air, or anything in between.
The second stage of the process involves precisely reheating the air to the required dry-bulb temperature with waste condenser heat before supplying it to the space. This process allows both the sensible and latent cooling loads to be precisely met. Using waste condenser heat also minimises energy consumption.
PCUs are highly customisable, with a large array of design options and configurations available.
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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