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Reducing Heat Stress with HVLS Fans
Feb 17, 2017

How HVLS Fans Help to Control Heat
While adding air-conditioning to a distribution center is the best-case scenario, it isn't always practical due to cost considerations and building configurations. With or without air-conditioning, though, most heat stress-prone warehouses can benefit immensely from high-volume, low-speed (HVLS) fans.

Although smaller, floor-mounted fans can be helpful in a small area, their high wind speed can cause problems and their noisy operating level introduces another other stress-inducing factor. They also use a relatively high amount of electricity. HVLS fans, on the other hand, use relatively little energy and provide a gentle, quiet breeze that is very comforting to workers. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services paper "Workers in Hot Environments," a 2-3 mph air speed creates a cooling sensation of 7-11 degrees F. Air moving faster than 5 mph can be disruptive and provides little, if any, added cooling benefit.

The advantage of HVLS fans is their ability to move large volumes of air and create a steady, light breeze. When the breeze reaches people during the warm months, it creates an evaporative cooling effect and reduces the effective temperature by 10-12 degrees F. To put this in perspective, the effective temperature of an 84-degree warehouse environment can be dropped to 73 degrees by adding a fan moving air at 3 mph. This 11-degree cooling sensation can make workers up to 35 percent more productive.

Technically advanced HVLS fans can move large volumes of air over an area up to 22,000 square feet. A single HVLS fan can replace as many as 10 to 20 floor fans, reducing clutter on the ground and lowering the chances of an accident. By mixing air, HVLS fans also help air-conditioning systems work more efficiently, allowing them to be operated at a lower set point. The breeze from an HVLS fan typically allows up to a 5 degree F increase in the AC system's thermostat setting with no change in employee comfort.

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