It may be invisible, but air can work for you if you push it around enough, controlling heat and humidity
WOODSTOCK, Ont. — Air is free. It’s all around us. But making it work for us is a whole different matter. When we need to move that air, we need fans. Big fans.
“Actually, you need big-ass fans,” states Patrick Wilson, Canadian national sales manager for the company that named themselves just plain “Big Ass Fans.”
The entry gate to his display at the Outdoor Farm Show featured a 24-foot diameter ceiling fan designed to keep livestock cool when they’re inside in hot weather.
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“Milk production suffers when dairy cows experience heat stress. Rodeo arenas are another situation where it’s necessary to keep horses cool and provide them with fresh air. You don’t want expensive equine stock overheating.”
Wilson says his fans don’t have too many structural limitations. Even the large 24-foot diameter fans are relatively light. The heaviest is about 300 pounds. He says most modern buildings can handle that weight without additional engineering or supports.
“We install the fans ourselves, right across Western Canada, so our team ensures there’s no structural problems. We do the entire installation, including the electrical power and controls. We don’t want to see any glitches. We check with our structural engineer if there’s any doubt about the integrity of a building.
“Before we do anything on the site, we have a full team of application engineers designing each project. We work with a computer modeling tool called a spec lab tool. When the customer sends us the building plans, we mock up the building in 3D. Length, width, ceiling height, air flow requirements, obstructions to air flow and any other relevant information.
“Then we run what’s called a computational fluid dynamic model, or CFD. Based on all the data the customer sent us, the CFD lets us model the airflow in the building. Before he makes any purchase decision, we show the customer what the airflow will look like. Is it what he wants to accomplish his needs? We do extensive consulting with the client to make sure we all understand the requirements.”
Wilson says Big Ass carries ceiling fans ranging from eight feet in diameter up to 24 feet in diameter, in two-foot increments. Depending on circumstances, the 24-foot fans range in price from $7,000 to $12,000.
