What is an HVLS Fan? – An Intro to the Basics  

If you aren’t familiar with these large industrial ceiling fans, better known as High Volume Low Speed (HVLS) Fans, you may find this brief introduction to basic HVLS Fan features helpful.

Size
These big fans normally range in size from 8ft to 24ft in diameter.  Some patented designs enable smaller size fans - like 9ft, 12ft, and 15ft - to give the same performance of larger fans.

Motors
In spite of their size, due to their slow speed (see RPM below) they usually only require 1 to 3 HP motors to provide the necessary performance.  I won’t go into the physics of these machines, but suffice it to say by moving slowly, with their large size, they have enough power to do what they are designed to do.  As fan speed increases, the power needed increases exponentially; so slow and steady is the energy efficient way to go.  Most manufacturers provide designs which can be used with multiple power sources.