The annual Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers (Ireland) SDAR Awards took place on Thursday 7th April in DIT Bolton Street. It was organised by Michael McDonald of Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT).

There were four excellent papers presented, including a paper on Hygrothermal risk evaluation of existing and proposed retrofit options for the junction of solid wall with ground floor in a typical Edwardian house in Dublin
by Benat Arregi and Joseph Little. The paper featured Ty-Mawr's award-winning sublime® Limecrete Breathable Floor system. 

The competition was won by Dervilla Niall of the School of Civil & Structural Engineering, DIT. Her paper on thermal mass behaviour of concrete panels incorporating phase change materials was a narrow but deserved winner.

Chair of the judging panel Kevin Gaughan, said: "This was the most competitive year since the competition began 6 years ago with all papers and presentations being very strong." This was evident in the decision by SDAR Editors Kevin Kelly and Keith Sunderland to offer an opportunity to all 4 authors to publish in the next SDAR Journal. Kevin Kelly says this has never happened before.

The other judges were Paul Martin of CIBSE/SEAI and John McGrory of DIT.

The runners up, in no particular order were:

• An investigation into the cost optimality of the Passive House retrofit standard for Irish Dwellings using Life Cycle Cost Analysis. By architect Daniel Coyle.
• Hygrothermal risk evaluation of existing and proposed retrofit options for the junction of solid wall with ground floor in a typical Edwardian house in Dublin By Benat Arregi and Joseph Little
• Importance of Feasibility Studies for Grid Connected PV Systems in Ireland. By Andrew Hogan

This news comes at the end of a week when we heard that Ty-Mawr’s sublime® Limecrete Breathable Floor system, which has full LABC-registration in England & Wales, has been awarded full registration by Local Authority Building Standards Scotland (LABSS).