A Whole New HVLS Fan
11 JAN 2011
When company founder and HVLS fan inventor Walter Boyd was first asked to solve the problem of cooling dairy barns, he turned to the laws of physics. He knew that existing small fans with fast speeds were highly inefficient — the more the speed of air increases, the more horsepower is required.
The more slowly you move air, the more efficient the fan. Using these natural laws, Walt Boyd created the first high volume, low speed (HVLS) fan with ten blades.
At the time, nothing like it existed and the original 10 blade technology was quite innovative.
But, times change. Energy is now a whole lot more expensive. Companies need to meet new “green” standards as well as lower costs. And manufacturers need to find ways to reduce their carbon footprint — and that of their customers’ — and that goes for us here at MacroAir.
And so began our quest to make our HVLS fans more efficient. We started with possibility of changing the air foil shape. We knew that extrusion capacities had changed, giving us the ability to extrude a larger shape. We also questioned the number of blades — could we reduce the number? We also wanted a blade that would function efficiently through a wide range of speeds.
Thus, our objectives became:
- Create larger air foil shape
- Reduce the number of blades to make the fan lighter
- Produce the same amount of air flow
Through lots of experimentation with longer, larger blades, we discovered that we could get more air flow with a higher rotational speed, which in turn lowered the torque on the gearbox — and thus extending fan life.
Viola! MacroAir’s new Six-Blade HVLS fan was born.
Says MacroAir’s President Eddie Boyd, “This is a whole new HVLS fan. Outdated 10 blade fans employ smaller air foils and put a great deal of stress on the gearbox, which reduces fan life. The new six-blade HVLS fan moves 10% more air, it’s more efficient, and it puts less load on the gearbox — even at higher speeds. And most important, it requires less energy to operate and weighs 46% less than old HVLS fans.”
We’re really proud of this new technology and some of the great feedback we’ve received from customers who have installed these new fans. If you want to learn more about how you can integrate this new energy-efficient technology into your warehouse, livestock barns or commercial areas, just give us a call. Or, view our completely revamped Website — no matter what your application, we have a Six-Blade HVLS Fan for you!
