There are four finalists in the Innovator of the Year Award category.
Silenceair International managing director and designer, Chris Matthews, was selected for developing an acoustic ventilator, a device which sits on the outside wall of a building and lets fresh air in and blocks out noise.
It uses no energy and can be used with air conditioning by providing 'makeup air' and complies with the NCC ventilation code for buildings.
The second finalist in this category is Green HVAC Solution director and CEO, Vahid Vakiloroaya, a mechanical engineer who is currently a research fellow at Western Sydney University.
He has written extensively on energy efficiency and has two international patents that have already been commercialised in Australia and overseas. The first is a product that reduces the electricity consumption of air conditioning by 40 per cent and the second innovation is a smart thermal controller which came to market earlier this year.
Finalist Paul Hawkins is the founder of TopWise, the first service management software solutions that solves the day to day operational challenges of a HVACR, mechanical and white goods company. It covers refrigerant handling, record keeping and safety.
The last finalist for Innovator of the Year is the regional manager of Smart Connected Services at Johnson Controls, Samit Sen, who is working on analytics which address rising energy costs in Australia.
It is a concept that was developed by engineers locally and is now being supported by the US team for a global rollout. The product is known as Metasys Enterprise Management.
The Innovator of the Year Award is sponsored by Toshiba.