Two Whitehorse entrepreneurs are the winners of the 2019 Innovation Prize, worth $60,000.

Cody Reaume and Thomas Jaquin of Phylo Technologies are the recipients. Reaume is the co-founder of Phylo, while Jaquin is a software developer.

They were presented with the award and a cheque Monday by Ranj Pillai, the minister of Economic Development, at NorthLight Innovation (the former Food Fair/Super Valu building).

The Yukon Innovation Prize is an annual award handed out by the territorial government and Cold Climate Innovation at Yukon College.

Reaume said he was excited to have won the award. It was a long road for the duo in developing their project, and he is happy it’s paying off.

Their project is the development of an intelligent ventilation control system. If successful, it would replace the standard equipment found in homes.

It uses air quality measurements to control ventilation, minimizing energy consumption and ensuring good air quality.

Reaume hopes to have the product finished and ready for sale by the summer of 2020. He is unsure how much it will cost in the end.

He came up with the ventilation control idea when he moved back to Yukon recently, having lived here previously.

Over the last year, Reaume grew frustrated with the lack of control and understanding about the air quality in his own home. He thought there was a better way to deal with this problem.

He began developing his idea, but quickly realized he did not have the right skill set to implement it.

He decided to partner with Jaquin, as the latter is an established maker and software developer.

“We started chatting about the idea and he was interested in coming on board,” Reaume said. “We were able to make it happen together.”

Jaquin is glad that this product will bring an understanding of air quality in homes as well as reduce energy consumption.

He explained that with current ventilation systems, fresh air is being brought into homes – which may be unnecessary.

“It’s really important to know whether you need to ventilate your house or not,” Jaquin said.

This can be further compounded when considering the speed of the ventilating fans, he added.

The $60,000 will help build their next prototype. New and better components will be used, which should make several improvements. These include more sensitive sensors and making the system more reliable over all.

Jaquin added they will distribute the system into the homes of people interested in the product.

They want feedback from these parties. New features could be integrated based on what they hear.

He said people have asked if this system will detect radon. He said it is better to not have the radon detector integrated into the prototype.

That said, he explained that a radon detector could connect with his product through Wi-Fi.

“Based on the level of radon, we could trigger the HRV (heat recovery ventilator) or not,” Jaquin said.

As for distribution, Reaume said they plan on both selling the system themselves while getting it on the shelves of distributors. There will be online sales as well.

Phylo’s project was one of 30 initial submissions. That was narrowed down to four projects, with each getting $10,000 for further development.

Sabrina Clarke’s Yukon Wigglers project, Shane Wolffe’s solar air heating project and Michael Gerasimoff’s idea to use static cling to remove bad particles from wood- burning appliances were the runners-up for the prize.