One of Northern Ireland's oldest family businesses, Willis Heating & Plumbing Co. Ltd, has been honoured for its contribution to business in Northern Ireland at the Celebration of Enterprise event hosted as part of Invest Northern Ireland's National Enterprise Week.

The company received the award for 'Best New Innovation' for the invention of the Willis Solasyphon – a new solar water heating system launched in September that is already making an impact on the global water heating industry.

The event, which was held at the Transport Museum, Cultra, and hosted by BBC presenter Noel Thompson, recognised and celebrated the achievements of local entrepreneurs. Willis Managing Director John Willis is delighted to be honoured and explains how the Willis Solasyphon has already become a great success in the short time since its launch.

"With rising oil prices and a global drive to reduce Co2 emissions, renewable energy is currently a hot topic, so it’s a privilege for Willis to be regarded as one of Northern Ireland's most successful entrepreneurial companies in the domestic energy field," said John.

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"The Willis Solasyphon represents a major change in the way that solar thermal panels produce hot water and we’re delighted that it has been recognised for its innovation. It provides hot water quickly and efficiently and can significantly reduce home water heating bills and installation costs.

"Currently installing a solar thermal panel system requires replacing the existing hot water storage cylinder with a twin coil solar cylinder. This means that the original hot water tank has to be scrapped which is a huge waste of copper. Add to this, the copper required for the new cylinder and the man hours needed to carry out the work, and you get a measure of the waste.

"The Willis Solasyphon is a simple 'bolt-on' heat exchange unit which heats the water in a customer’s existing cylinder, removing the necessity to replace the hot water storage cylinder and therefore addressing the problem of waste in terms of copper and labour. It can be used in new installations or retro-fitted to existing ones and starts producing hot water within minutes of sun shining on the solar panel, rather than several hours using existing technology," he added.

"We launched the product three months ago and its success to date has exceeded our expectations. We are currently in negotiations with a number of major national and international companies and expect to be announcing some significant global export orders in the near future.

"On the awards front, the Willis Solasyphon was also named 'Best New Product of the Show' at CIOB’s (Chartered Institute of Building) Interbuild exhibition in Dublin," concluded John.

Willis is no stranger to invention, as the company is also behind the Willis Immersion Heater which became an essential feature of virtually every household in Northern Ireland in the 1960s and 70s.

(JM)