General Assembly participants

The 59th REHVA General Assembly was held on Thursday 7 May 2015 in Riga, Latvia. It gathered nearly 90 participants from 22 countries. After a welcoming address given by Mrs. Ilze Osa, the Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Latvia, Director of Housing and Construction department, Prof Karel Kabele opened the General Assembly.
In the afternoon, Prof. Karel Kabele presented the 2014 annual report and the activity plans for 2015. The financial report of 2014, the 2015 budget and the 2016 preliminary budget were presented by Stefano Corgnati, the treasurer and approved by the quorum.
Two REHVA Fellows were granted to Hans Besselink from TVVL and Anatolijs Borodinecs AHGWTEL/LATVAC. In the late afternoon, reports from the Standing Committees were presented by their chairs.
At the end of the Assembly REHVA`s next president, and successor of Karel Kabele, Stefano Corgnati from AiCARR-Italy was elected for the position of President-elect.

Stefano Corgnati (REHVA President-Elect, l) and Karel Kabele (REHVA President, r)

Please save the date already for the next General Assembly, which will be held in combination with REHVA`s international CLIMA 2016 Conference in Aalborg/ Denmark from 20- 26 May 2016

REHVA Annual Conference 2015

The 2015 REHVA Annual Conference was organized in Riga, Latvia on 8-9 May 2015 in cooperation with the AHGWTEL, the Association of Heat, Gas and Water Technology Engineers of Latvia. The main topic of the Conference was Advanced HVAC and Natural Gas Technologies. This event brought together leading experts from the international heating, ventilation and air condition community. The Conference in Riga gathered 150 people representing 22 countries to discuss HVAC novelties, standards and researches.
The presentations are available online.

REHVA Awards 2015
On the occasion of the Annual Meeting 2015, the following members of REHVA Member Associations received a REHVA Award:

Jiří Petlach (STP – Czech Republic) received a REHVA professional award in design and was recognized for his outstanding achievements in the design of HVAC systems and for his contributions to improve energy efficiency and the indoor environment of buildings.
Prof. Zoltan Magyar (ETE – Hungary) received a REHVA professional award in education and was recognized for his outstanding academic achievements and for his contributions to improve energy efficiency and the indoor environment of buildings.
Prof. Arturs Lesinskis (AHGWTEL / LATVAC – Latvia) and Renato Merati (AiCARR – Italy) received a REHVA professional award in technology and were recognized for their outstanding achievements in technology and for their contributions to improve energy efficiency and the indoor environment of buildings.
Arturs Brahmanis (AHGWTEL/LATVAC – Latvia) and Wilmer Pasut (AiCARR – Italy) received a REHVA Young Scientist Award and were recognized for their outstanding scientific achievements and for their contributions to improve energy efficiency and the indoor environment of buildings.

The REHVA Gold Medal, the highest REHVA recognition, was handed by REHVA President Karel Kabele to Prof. Francis Allard  in recognition of his outstanding services to REHVA and for his excellent contributions to science and engineering in heating, ventilation and air-conditioning.

Prof. Karel Kabele (l) and Prof. Francis Allard

2015 REHVA Student competition
Under the leadership of Manuel Gameiro da Silva, REHVA Vice-President from Portugal, the REHVA 2015 Student competition took place on Friday 8 May in Riga, Latvia during the Annual Meeting.

Ten candidates representing nine countries were in competition this year, The Netherlands being represented by a team of two students. Jelle Loogman and Ivo de Visser presented their work on An alternative ventilation system for operating theatres: an experimental and numerical parameter study and a full-scale experimental study on the performance of a local ventilation system; Magdalena Zwiehoff (Germany.) on Passive cooling measures for single-family houses; Joaquim Fernandes Monteiro (Portugal.) on Experimental and numerical study of ventilation efficiency as indicator of air diffusion quality; Szilveszter Zoltan Geyer Ehrenberg (Romania) on Heat recovery as source of energy optimization in industrial plants; Raimo Simson (Estonia.) on Performance of room-based ventilation units in renovated apartment buildings; Aleksejs Prozuments (Latvia) on The use of a chilled beam technology in a hospital ward; András Balázs (Hungary.) described the Winter set point correction; Vukašin Kendrisić (Serbia) presented the Photovoltaic solar systems and solar building`s distributed power generation and Stine Pedersen (Denmark.) presented a Desktop polling station for real-time building occupant feedback.

The Jury was composed of Manuel Gameiro da Silva (Portugal), Michael Schmidt (Germany), Marija Todorovic (Serbia), Hans Besselink (the Netherlands) and Hywel Davis (United Kingdom). It was very difficult and hard to come to the winner. After a tight deliberation, the jury declared winner Stine Pedersen from Aarhus University (Denmark) for her work on “Desktop polling station for real-time building occupant feedback “.
The second was awarded to the Dutch team of Jelle Loogman and Ivo de Visser. The third prize was awarded to Magdalena Zwiehoff of Germany.
The next day, during the Conference, REHVA President, Karel Kabele, offered a check of 500 € to the winner, a certificate and the Trophy Cup for her university. Stine Pedersen gave an oral presentation of her work.
Manuel Gameiro da Silva also thanked all contributors emphasizing the high quality of the works presented and the members of the jury for their excellent task.

Karel Kabele, Stine Pedersen and Manuel Gameiro da Silva

Competitors with their certificate of participation in REHVA 2015 student competition.

Memorandum of Understanding between Eurovent and REHVA

Eurovent, the European Committee of HVAC&R Manufacturers and REHVA, the Federation of European Heating, Ventilation and Air-conditioning Associations have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Thursday, 28 May 2015. The two associations are devoted to intensify and strengthen their long-standing partnership, bringing Europe`s HVAC&R engineering, R&D and manufacturing sectors closer together while making effective use of synergies.

The MoU was signed by REHVA Secretary General Jan Aufderheijde and Eurovent Secretary General Felix Van Eyken. REHVA and Eurovent commit themselves to formalise their relationship by becoming member/supporter of each other`s associations. They explore the option of sharing resources and, where feasible, secretarial services. Furthermore, they have agreed to advocate, promote and regularly participate in each other`s key events, to exchange articles and material to be used within each other`s PR activities, and aim to jointly increase contacts with the EU and international institutions.

According to REHVA Secretary General Jan Aufderheijde, `the MoU marks an important step in bringing two truly European associations that have a similar structure and share similar industry ideals even closer together`. The Eurovent Secretary General Felix Van Eyken added that `none of our two associations can be active in each single field. Many European legislations touch both REHVA`s and Eurovent`s areas of expertise, which calls for a more intensive and active cooperation.` Van Eyken added that REHVA, as a member of Eurovent`s new `supervisory body`, would receive an active role in all energy performance of building related issues.

Both organisations constitute the leading European representatives in their respective fields. With the manufacturing (Eurovent) as well as engineering, research and development (REHVA), they represent two areas that increasingly coalesce. Together, they support energy efficient solutions while acknowledging the importance of a healthy indoor environment.

http://www.rehva.eu