Christchurch company “quietly” takes out national engineering award
November 2008
A Christchurch company who developed a home heating and power generator in high demand with international markets has won the Innovator of the Year Award at the 2008 New Zealand Engineering Excellence Awards at TE PAPA in Wellington.
The engineering team of Don Clucas, Len Damiano, Murray Aitken and Vinod Kumar from Whisper Tech developed the micro-combined heat and power unit generator that heats homes and hot water. The WhisperGen unit delivers heat in a similar manner to a conventional water boiler, but can also generate a large proportion of the home's electricity needs and surplus electricity generated can be sold back to the electriorty retailer.
Convenor for the NZEE Individual Awards judging panel Steve Gentry said underpinning the commercial development, the WhisperTech engineering team has amassed an impressive list of 64 patents in 26 countries and have now sold over 1,000 Whisper units in to European homes heating market and are now preparing for large scale manufacture.
Other versions of the Whispergen unit are being sold for yachts, holiday homes, and remote locations such as farmhouses where normal power supplies will not reach. There is a unit in use in an observatory at the South Pole.
The fourth New Zealand Engineering Excellence Awards are the premier awards for New Zealand engineering professionals. The awards are presented in two major areas: Individual Awards, that recognise leadership, entrepreneurship, and our young engineers; and Category Awards, that recognise achievement in the various industry areas, together with a Supreme Award for the best of the Category winners.
The New Zealand Engineering Excellence Awards are hosted by a consortium of five partners and 10 contributing organisations. The partners are: Centre for Advanced Engineering (CAE); Association of Local Government Engineering New Zealand Incorporated (INGENIUM); Electricity Engineers Association of New Zealand (EEA); Association of Consulting Engineers of New Zealand (ACENZ) and the Institution of Professional Engineers of New Zealand (IPENZ.)
For more information contact:
Chief Executive, IPENZ, Engineers New Zealand.
Mobile: 021 311 879
DDI: 04 474 8935
Prepared by Julie Buchanan, Communications Manager, IPENZ, Engineers NZ,
Mobile: 021 479 885, DDI: 04 473 2028