The 9th International Energy Agency Heat Pump Conference, held on May 20 - 22 2008 in Zurich and organized by the IEA Heat Pump Programme Executive Committee, welcomed more than 450 people from 36 countries, who discussed the latest news in research, development, market and policies related to heat pumping technologies.

The conference program included 71 presentations by plenary, keynote and technical authors in nine sessions covering the theme “Advances and Prospects in Technology, Application and Markets”. In addition there were 150 poster presentations related to the field. All ongoing international projects within the IEA Heat Pump Programme held workshops with presentations of the latest news related to ground source heat pumps, low-energy buildings, heat pumps for the retrofit market, compact heat exchangers and thermally driven heat pumps. The Best Poster Award was made for the first time at the conference to “Performance characterisation of a reversible water-to-water heat pump” from Spain and “System performance of HVAC in a low-energy house in the cold region of Japan” from Japan.

At the conference banquet the second Peter Ritter von Rittinger International Heat Pump Awards, named after Peter Ritter von Rittinger, an Austrian engineer who designed and installed the first known heat pump in 1855 in Austria, were presented to three individuals in recognition of their contributions to international collaboration in advancing heat pump technologies. One of them was Professor Eric Granryd, a Swedish researcher, recognised for his widely used calculation method for air coils and optimization of heat pump systems. Professor Predrag S. Hrnjak, a Serbian researcher working in the USA, also received the award for his work on a programme to compare alternative refrigerants which stimulated the development of new components, refrigerants and systems. Finally, Gerald Groff, an American expert on air conditioning, building energy systems and office workstation ergonomics now a consultant for, among others, USDOE and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has also received the Rittinger Award, reveals the organizer’s press release.