CHICAGO—If you could make your workplace temperature more comfortable for pennies per day and save $3,000 in monthly energy costs—at a return of investment of two years—would you do it? This is the business proposal that AirLiance, the inventory specialist near O’Hare International, examined for its headquarters.

The decision to proceed with this proposition didn’t take long.

AirLiance management wanted to improve the quality of light in the warehouse, increase heating efficiency in the winter and save money. For anyone who has experienced a Chicago winter, the heating goal requires no further explanation, except to say the warehouse heaters are mounted on the ceiling. “We had happy forklift operators” who enjoyed the warmth at the top of the warehouse, but the rest of the staff could get a bit chilly, says David Sisson, AirLiance’s president and CEO.

“We had looked at adding heaters on the floor,” but then discovered that a 24-ft. Big Ass Fan would provide a more logical and economical answer, says Rich Sheldon, AirLiance’s operations manager. The fan brings down hot air from the ceiling in the winter and distibutes the warmth over a bigger area than the heaters could reach, says Sheldon. The Big Ass Fan even adds a visually dramatic element and an “aviation feel” because of the winglet-like tips on each blade.

It took AirLiance’s heating and cooling company three days to install the fan in late November. The fan and installation cost was $20,000.

Without changing the heaters, the warehouse temperature in the winter climbed from 62-63°F to 68°F thanks to the high-volume low-speed fan, which operates at 20-30% of its maximum speed. Sheldon says that after the fan was installed, the days of employees donning coats or gloves were over—without using more energy.

“The fan already answered an issue here for us,” so “if it brings a benefit in the summer, that’s just a bonus,” grins Sheldon.

AirLiance considered two smaller fans or one large one and decided one fan, one controller and one installation point equated to the best answer.

Let There Be Light

Before AirLiance moved into its current headquartters in 2006, it upgraded lighting in its primary workspace from high-pressure sodium to metal halide light fixtures, which provide whiter, more pleasing illumination. This upgrade “was to increase the amount of available light and was not an energy conservation move,” says Sheldon.