Green heating project wins national engineering award

November 2008

A new environmental heating system at Dunedin Airport has taken out the electrical and systems award at the 2008 New Zealand Engineering Excellence Awards at TE PAPA in Wellington last night.

The engineering team from MWH, New Zealand designed the ground water heat pump energy system that significantly reduced Dunedin Airport’s heating costs and enhanced the environmental comfort of those working and using the airport’s terminal building.

The project presented some challenging climatic conditions to the engineering team with external temperatures ranging from about 9 degrees C in the winter to about 30 degrees Celsius in the summer.  

“The project team developed a thorough understanding of local climate along with the buildings energy use and were able to tailor the building heat control system to achieve a warm in winter and cool in summer”, said David Elms, Convenor of the Category Awards judging panel.

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