We’re playing this one straight. Kentucky-based industrial fan manufacturer Big Ass Fans is working with US printer company Lexmark, which has a sideline in IoT management software, and IT and cloud service provider Microsoft to produce an “IoT-powered comfort ecosystem” to monitor people and conditions to auto-adjust its fans and coolers to keep factories and other industrial plants properly ventilated and heated.
US firm Big Ass Fans makes fans, evaporative coolers, and controls for industrial, agricultural, commercial, and residential use. It is headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky, with offices in Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Canada. It said it will release its product, an IoT platform called CommandSense, in April (2025), claiming benefits for industrial customers in terms of heat stress, worker safety (and morale), and energy costs.
It suggested heat stress can be mitigated by up to 60 percent, in turn “boosting employee productivity by up to 50 percent”, it said – when paired with the company’s own fans and heaters. The whole Big Ass solution uses “four times less energy” than standard HVAC systems, it said, and at a fraction of the cost – “producing savings up to $1 million over five years”, it proclaimed. The platform issues alerts about functional errors in fans and coolers.
CommandSense is based on Lexmark’s IoT platform, and connected to Microsoft’s edge/cloud IoT management tools and services. It merges “Lexmark brains with Big Ass brawn”, the company said. It called it a “never-before-seen solution for industrial facilities to manage rising temperatures” and the “first-ever fully-automated IoT-powered comfort ecosystem”.
A statement explained: “Each CommandSense system is… designed for its facility, providing customised comfort control for small- to medium-sized manufacturing operations and untapped potential for larger facilities. Using a proprietary solution composed of edge computing, an IoT platform, environmental sensors, device protocol translation, and other advanced technology, [it] delivers fully integrated comfort like never before.”
Ken Walma, president and chief executive at Big Ass Fans, said: “Our goal is to provide comfort without compromise. CommandSense represents a new era for this mission. We’re proud to bring this automatic comfort and cooling solution to frontline associates and take worker safety to the next level.”
Demetrios Karathanasis, IoT portfolio director for Lexmark, said: “Innovation is so exciting to watch. The Lexmark team is thrilled to provide the foundational technology that has allowed Big Ass Fans to make the leap from manufacturing exceptional products to offering comfort without compromise through CommandSense.”