Ceiling fans are cool. Giant ceiling fans are even cooler. Some health club owners have capitalized on those two facts to great effect. Club owners and managers from Australia to Maine have discovered that behemoth, six- to 24-foot-diameter, High-Volume/ Low-Speed (HVLS) ceiling fans work to keep their members comfortably cool during workouts. In Stanford, CA, Stanford University increased their fitness facility’s comfort level; curbed dangerous and damaging condensation, and upped their bottom line with HVLS fans.
The Problem: Hot, Stagnant Air
The 75,000-square-foot Arrillaga Family Sports Center in Stanford has just about everything it needs to be a world-class fitness facility. The Center has 16,000-square-feet of weight-training space; a matted studio used for wrestling, martial arts and yoga; they even have three regulation-size basketball courts.
The basketball courts and the matted studio were causing headaches for Eric Stein, the Associate Director of Athletics for Physical Education, Recreation and Wellness at Stanford, and the person charged with making the Arrillaga Family Sports Center a place where Stanford students, faculty, staff and community members want to be. On the second floor of the facility, where the three basketball courts take up 24,000-square-feet, and the matted studio occupies another 5,000-square-feet, things were heating up. The mild California weather didn’t call for air conditioning the space, but the large windows (that didn’t open) were letting sunlight pour in and heat the air, and it was becoming uncomfortable. The air in the huge space was hot, humid and stagnant… Not exactly the welcome Stein had in mind for patrons.
Stein says, “It was uncomfortable for those working out when temperatures rose. We tried using smaller floor fans, but they weren’t very effective.”
Small floor fans are usually noisy and inefficient, too. Retrofitting the space with air conditioning was not a feasible option because of both installation and operating costs. Stein knew there had to be a better way, and he went looking for it at a fitness industry convention.
The Solution: High-Volume/Low-Speed Fans
“I was at the IHRSA [International Health, Racquet and Sports club Association] Convention in 2006, and we were looking for something to combat our problem,” explains Stein. “We happened to be walking by the Big Ass Fans booth, and the fan that was set up almost blew my hat off. So, we decided to learn more about them and eventually, install them.”
The fan that Stein was blown away by was the latest in HVLS fan technology. The HVLS fans use their immense size, not their speed, to move air over large spaces – like the space in Arrillaga. HVLS fans maximize the body’s natural heat-regulating system and evaporative cooling. As the breeze from HVLS fans moves across the skin, sweat evaporates more quickly, which makes a person feel 11- to 17-degrees cooler. The cooling effect of the airflow from an HVLS fan can make all the difference in a space without air conditioning.
HVLS fans are not only effective, they are also amazingly efficient. The largest size of the fans available – 24-feet in diameter – uses a tiny, two-horsepower motor. Even at the highest speed settings, the big fans consume very little energy – averaging out to operating costs of just pennies per day. This made these fans a cost-effective option for Stein and Stanford University. Stein eventually installed four HVLS fans, one 20-foot-diameter fan over each of the three basketball courts, and one 18-foot-diameter fan over the matted studio.
“Our fans are serving the purpose for which they were designed. We now have air circulation when we need it, eliminating the stagnant air. You can tell a huge difference even on a slow speed,” says Stein.
Stein has found the variable speed control on his HVLS fans to be a unique benefit to his multi-tasking facility, and he says, “Each environment is different depending on use. Since their speed is adjustable, the fans offered us an opportunity to create the air circulation needed to complement all programs held in our gymnasium and studio, whether it be classes, clubs, camps or open recreation.”
The benefits to installing HVLS fans don’t end with adjustable-speed settings. The fans are incredibly quiet, and Stein says, “They are just so quiet, you don’t even hear them.” (That is a big change from the noisy, ineffective airflow created by the small floor fans Stein had tried before.) Stein goes on to say, “There is no comparison between the [HVLS fans] and the smaller fans.”
The ceiling-mounted design of HVLS fans gives them another edge over small floor fans: They leave valuable floor space free and clear, and eliminate tripping hazards for patrons. Stagnant air in health club environments often leads to humidity and condensation problems. Stein has also found that airflow generated by the HVLS fans has all but eliminated condensation worries – floors stay dry, and the facility stays safer and healthier. Stanford University students, faculty and staff like the changes the HVLS fans have brought about.
“I haven’t heard one bad thing about the fans. We’ve heard all positive feedback because without that stagnant air, working out has been improved,” says Stein.
Heather Henley is the Public Relations Specialist with the Big Ass Fans Company. She can be contacted at 877.BIG.FANS, or by email at heather@bigassfans.com, or visit www.BigAssFans.com.
