Heat pumps the winner at IoR dinner

UK: Heat pumps dominated the awards at last night’s annual Institute of Refrigeration dinner in London.

The J&E Hall Gold Medal, Lightfoot Medal and Ted Perry Student Research Awards all went to heat-pump-related work. 

The J&E Hall award, which recognises the most noteworthy practical contribution in the field of refrigeration, air conditioning or heat pumps, was won by Dave Pearson of Glasgow-based Star Renewable Energy. This made the award something of a family affair, his father Forbes having previously won the award in 1991 and his brother Andy in 2006.

Pearson won the award for his work in the development of industrial scale heat pumps. This work also won him the Champion of Renewables Award at the Scottish Green Energy Awards in December.

Along with the Gold Medal, which is kept for one year, Dave Pearson receives an engraved silver replica along with a prize of £5,000.

The annual Lightfoot Medal for the best IoR talk and paper, as voted by members, was awarded jointly to consultants Andrew Gigiel and Chris Jessop for their presentation Why don’t people install heat pumps?.

The prestigious Ted Perry Student Research Award was this year won by Qi Xu of the University of Nottingham for her research on an innovative heat pump – The EcoPump. 

Qi Xu has been working on the project with several industry partners and judges commented that this low energy HVAC system is a novel and exciting project that could have a far reaching and significant impact on the domestic mass market for air conditioning.

The audience at the Leonardo Royal Hotel also saw Paul Gardner of JPS Refrigeration receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award for his track record in outstanding customer service throughout his 43-year career in the industry. The judges also highlighted Paul’s dedication in building a thriving family business from scratch while still working as a service engineer.

Commenting on the IOR Awards, Kevin Glass FInstR, President of the IOR said “IOR is proud to recognise the contributions that individuals can make to driving our industry forward and this year’s crop of winners have shown excellence in their dedicated to their chosen field. Each of their contributions will help our industry to address the challenging issues of climate change and sustainability whether through ground-breaking research, innovative design and development or dedication to the highest standards in installation and maintenance.”