Rite-Hite Revolution HVLS Fans
April 14, 2010 — Some people claim they're our biggest fan. Much appreciated. But with all due respect, here is our biggest fan: the Revolution model "high-volume, low-speed" (HVLS) industrial fan from the Rite-Hite corporation. Designed for lobbies, laundry rooms, gym facilities and anywhere else co-op / condo apartment buildings have large, often high-ceilinged spaces, HVLS fans are the specific, heavy-duty type of ceiling fan that boards should consider if you want to lower common-area electricity costs.
So what exactly is HVLS? Available in different diameters, high-volume, low-speed fans are designed to movie air efficiently in large areas. A typical high-speed ceiling fan spreads air out quickly from the fan, resulting in little if any air reaching the floor. HVLS fans — in use since the 1980s, but most prevalent in the last five years — move air near the ceiling downward, where the air then moves horizontally a few feet above the floor and eventually rises to the ceiling where it's cycled downward again.
This conical mixing effect, called de-stratification, creates a uniform air temperature, easing burdens on you HVAC (heating / ventilating / air conditioning) systems during both the hotter and colder months, and making large spaces comfortable with lower electricity costs.
Rite-Hite says its line of fans are designed differently from more common "extruded blade" fans that create an area directly underneath the fan where you feel little if any air movement. The Revolution models fans create no such hole, the company says, because of a specifically contoured blade design. Sounds fan-tastic.
Rite-Hite — Industrial Fans division • 8900 North Arbon Drive, Milwaukee, Wisc. 53223 • (414) 55-2600 • toll-free (888) 423-0789 • info@ritehite.com