Energy efficient design competition winners are announced

We’ve spent a large part of this year asking how each of us can reduce the energy that our building designs consume. The winners and finalists of Eskom’s annual energy efficiency competition, the eta Awards were announced a gala event held on Monday, 10 December 2007, and are surely the leaders in creating solutions for this challenge faced by South Africa’s design professionals.

Winners took home cash prizes, along with the accolade of setting benchmarks in energy efficient design. The winners were:

Honingklip Dryflowers from Botriver, Cape Town won the agricultural category. The company developed a cost and energy efficient way to dry large quantities of flowers for export and domestic sale. The energy saved by this project is an estimated 6,605,530 kWh, which on the differentiated charge equates to R967 280.00 per annum.

The Voltex VML Mine Light has been designed in conjunction with mining houses and addresses all key requirements for underground lighting. It offers major energy savings, meets performance and safety standards, uses a new technology lamp which has a high tolerance for voltage fluctuations, substantially improves maintenance, and it’s easy to install. For this entry Voltex Lighting are the winners in the Industrial Category this year.

In the Commercial Category, Electro Sense won for its Electro Sense Proactive Management System. The system detects human presence using highly specialised infrared, microphonic and high frequency sensor technology. These sensors detect body heat, sound and movement to control the lighting and air-conditioning in a room or environment. The sensors also measure ambient light for daylight harvesting by turning off lights when there is sufficient light.

Lisa Reynolds won the prize for the “Women in Energy - Industry” category for her active participation in all facets of energy efficiency and conservation beyond her initial direct interest in insulation. She believes in a holistic approach to energy efficiency, and the training she presents always encourages people to voluntarily embrace energy efficient practices and be responsible in building design and construction. Reynolds has also been a driving force and a leader in the writing and completion of the standards and awareness of energy efficiency practices.

Nominated by Primedia, Jenny Crwys-Williams was the winner in the Women in Energy - Community Category. Crwys-Williams was responsible for instigating the Big-Switch Off campaign, which encouraged Sandton businesses and residents to switch off non-essential lighting and appliances for one hour in a symbolic gesture of the need to save energy. During the winter of 2007, she used her afternoon radio show on Talk 702 to tirelessly promote energy efficiency – both to help avoid unnecessary power cuts and to relieve the pressure we put on the environment.

The Young Designers category boasts four winners. The aptly named project, “The Good Cop/Bad Cop Syndrome for Energy in South Africa”, was tackled by members of the Ladysmith Enviro Club. Their research included camping out on the N3 highway close to Harrismith for a 24 hour period and then calculating the fuel usage of the vehicles on the carriageway. Their recommendations included suggestions for using carpools and the possible amount of fuel it could save.

Chelsea Tucker, aged 14, launched a project she referred to as the “Leaking Electricity Project”. It was based on a school project which focused on the LED lights on many home appliances which wasted electricity. Tucker did extensive research in her community, municipalities and businesses to quantify how much was being wasted. She has made plausible and sustainable suggestions to conserve energy and will continue her research on a broader scale in the future. Chelsea was not only a winner in the Young Designers Category but was also awarded a special award “Emerging Women in Energy”.

The third Young Designer winner is the Plettenberg Bay Enviro Club, for its inspiring entry “Power to the People”. These youngsters embarked on a project to assist the residents of the Qolweni informal settlement to have hot water in an energy efficient, cost saving manner. They came up with a simple and ecologically friendly way to harness the sun’s energy to address the lack of hot water.

Our final winners in this category are the Grade 3 learners from John Wesley School in Eshowe, KZN, who were responsible for the creation of “The Eco Bench”. The learners set out to create benches from waste. Each bench consists of 28 bottles filled with sand, straw and clay, then lime and cement is used for the foundation and to seal the bench in the end. They also composed their own song that was showcased at the gala event, “Recyle, Re-use and Re-invent”!

Have you invented something that breaks barriers in energy efficiency? We’d love to hear about it on info@designmind.co.za- and we’re sure that the 2008 instalment of the eta Awards would as well… Entries normally close in September – visit www.eta-awards.co.zafor more information