2021 H&V News Awards: this year’s winner revealed

The winners of 2021 H&V News Awards were honoured in front of hundreds of industry peers on 11 November at the Hilton Park Lane in London.

This year’s awards, backed by headline sponsor Wolseley Pipe, marked a welcome return to live events with comedian Rob Beckett hosting a ceremony to honour the breakthroughs of the sector over the course of the last year and following the unprecedented challenges of 2020.

Prizes across 25 categories were handed out during the evening with our expert panel of judges selecting winners and highly commended entrants for a range of fields focused on both technical and service innovations. This year’s award also honoured a range of individual achievements in across the HVAC sector.

Among this year’s prize winners was Marcus Piper of K&T Heating Services, who was selected by judges as Apprentice of the Year (21 and under).  A highly commended was also given to Harry Playfair of NG Bailey in the same category.

The Apprentice of the Year aged over 21 went to Jessica Baker of NG Bailey.

Innovation focus

From the perspective of innovation, Domestic Ventilation Product of the Year went to Vent-Axia for its Multivent MEV Family of technologies.

Finn Geotherm’s work at West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village was selected as Heat Pump Project of the Year – a category sponsored by Panasonic.  District Heating Project of the Year went to Vital Energi and Leeds City Council for the Leeds PIPES heat network.  The same project also took home the award for HVAC Project of the Year (Over £0.5m) – the category was sponsored by Smith Brothers Stores.

WMS Underfloor Heating took home the prize of Domestic Heating Contractor of the Year.

This year’s BESA Gold Award winner was Professor Catherine Noakes. She was honoured her work on raising the importance of ventilation and IAQ in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The accolade for Covid Frontline Achievement of the Year went to First Call Gas for its First Call Gas Buddy Scheme.

The 2021 Diversity Impact Award was given to Engineered by Dyslexia for its work to raise attention to neurodiversity issues in the HVAC Sector. This work has looked at how the industry can better support and benefit from individuals living with conditions such as dyslexia.

You can read the full list of winners and highly commended entries here.