Achieving Comfort in Outdoor Spaces
HVLS Fans Help Bridge the Gap Between Indoors & Outdoors
Ever dine out on a restaurant patio, notice yourself getting hot, only to look up and see ceiling fans running full speed but doing little to actually cool you? Unfortunately, this scenario is all too common. Many business owners recognize customer discomfort and turn to what they know: the typical residential ceiling fan. But the truth is, those fans provide minimal cooling ability and there’s a better solution out there: high-volume, low-speed (HVLS) fans.
Your New Best Friend Outside
EPIC HVLS fans have become the go-to solution for outdoor venues around the country, including sports venues, concert pavilions and restaurant/bar patios. We’ve even installed HVLS fans at high-end backyard patios! Covered patios may protect patrons from the beating sun, but despite the shade, the temperatures underneath can still become stifling due to a lack of air circulation. HVLS fans can create powerful air circulation that makes patrons feel 4-7 degrees cooler. Some of our restaurant clients have also noticed that the breezes from our HVLS fans are a natural way to help keep nuisance bugs away from patrons and their food.
And Bringing Outside Air Indoors
More and more venues are finding ways to intertwine their indoor and outdoor spaces. No longer do restaurants and bars just have a door to a patio — instead, many have garage-style doors that can be closed to keep out the elements in poor weather or be rolled up on nice days to make one big indoor/outdoor space. You may already have A/C for your indoor space, but pumping conditioned air through an indoor/outdoor space can have huge energy costs. However, even on the nicest days, there may not be enough natural breezes coming in to rely on for consistent airflow. That’s when EPIC HVLS fans come in. Placed strategically, they can pull in that fresh outdoor air and circulate it effectively throughout your entire space.
And it’s not just restaurants and bars blurring the lines between the indoors and out. EPIC HVLS fans were recently installed in a new Boys & Girls Club facility in Napa Valley — an area that typically has nice weather for most of the year. Since the facility was being designed and built from the ground up, the architects were able to take the open-air concept and HVLS fans into account in planning the HVAC system, ultimately specifying less ductwork than in a typical conditioned space. These choices saved the builders on upfront costs, and the architect knew that Boys & Girls Club would benefit from long-term cost savings, too. Since the HVLS fans draw a fraction of the electricity that an HVAC system does, the club expects to see lower electric bills and lower overall building operating costs each year.
