Haiku Haiku

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About Us

HAIKU HOME'S BIG ASS STORY

In 1999, the Big Ass Fan Company was born. Kind of. Then called the HVLS Fan Co. (that’s High Volume, Low Speed—catchy, right?), we first made our mark selling massive ceiling fans that spun slowly but moved astounding amounts of air. The fans kept large spaces that lacked air conditioning, such as factories and dairy barns, feeling cool and comfortable. Only a few years later, we officially changed our name after customers kept calling and asking if we made “those big-ass fans.” And soon enough, plenty of other customers wanted in. When churches wanted to install fans to keep congregations comfortable, we developed the first silent fan motor to meet their needs.

In 2012, we unveiled a residential fan that blew away ENERGY STAR® ratings and won design and technology awards worldwide. In 2014, we had the bright idea to create an LED fixture so tough you can drive a truck over it, launching a division appropriately called Big Ass Light™.

Soon we automated personal comfort by adding SenseME® technology to our residential fans. In 2016, we launched our Haiku Home division to transform the home through cutting-edge, energy-efficient technology and iconic design.

And we’ve backed everything with serious research, intensive engineering, and an almost obsessive drive to innovate and improve.

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  • 2016

    Our Haiku® Home residential division launches, confirming the company's position as an industry leader in connected home technology. Products include fans, automated lights, and efficient home heating and cooling systems.

  • 2015

    We expand our international reach into Canada by opening an office outside Toronto. The path to Big Ass domination now includes 800 employees in locations including Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Canada.

  • 2014

    The addition of SenseME® technology to Haiku makes it the world's smartest fan and connects it with other smart home products including the Nest Learning Thermostat™. Also, Big Ass Light debuts with industrial-strength LED light fixtures for all applications.

  • 2013

    We hire our 300th employee and open a new headquarters and another manufacturing facility in Lexington. This becomes the home of the Haiku, which would go on to become the world's most awarded residential ceiling fan.

  • 2012

    Our Haiku residential fan debuts. Hand-balanced, wobble-free, guaranteed silent and undeniably gorgeous, it shoots to the top of ENERGY STAR® efficiency rankings. Popular Science recognizes it as the "World's Quietest Fan."

  • 2011

    In a testament to our commitment to innovative applications, MASS Design Group installs Big Ass Fans in a new Rwandan health clinic. The seven fans circulate the clinic's air over UV lights, killing airborne pathogens. Take that, germs.

  • 2009

    We open the world's only R&D lab built specifically for testing big fans. The building is even LEED® Gold, showing we walk the walk and talk the talk on efficiency.

  • 2008

    Element, the first fan designed for quiet, air-conditioned spaces like churches and auditoriums, makes its debut. Our path to worldwide domination begins as we say g'day to our first international office in Brisbane, Australia.

  • 2007

    Doubling in size in less than two years, we hire our 100th employee. Our growth gets noticed: Inc. names us to its inaugural Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States. We've been on the list ever since.

  • 2006

    We hire our 50th employee and move into a new 98,000-sq-ft headquarters. The facility houses everything from manufacturing and customer service to sales and marketing, as well as an assortment of pool and shuffleboard tables.

  • 2003

    The name change to Big Ass Fans is official! We paint a mural of Fanny over an existing liquor ad on our new headquarters. This wholesome choice pisses off a city council member but attracts plenty of amused sightseers.

  • 2001

    With products installed in barns, industrial facilities, warehouses and many more spaces, we celebrate the sale of our 1,000th fan. This is a Big Ass deal—and, even better, it's just the beginning. Hundreds of thousands more will follow.

  • 2000

    Customers refer to the large fans as "big-ass fans," and Big Ass executives spend several hours convincing a donkey dubbed Fanny to strike a now-famous pose. Postmasters in seven states refuse to deliver the resulting postcard.

  • 1999

    The HVLS Fan Company—what will become Big Ass Fans—is born in Lexington, KY. The big fans are perfect for dairy barns, but they're not officially Big Ass (yet). We record our first sale on May 1 and sell 112 fans by the end of the year.

Our Offices

  • Canada
    • 6300 Northwest Drive, Unit 3
      Mississauga, ON L4V 1J7
      844-424-5848
  • United States
    • 2348 Innovation Drive
      Lexington, KY 40511
      855-694-2458
      Outside the U.S. (+1-859-233-1271)
  • Australia/Oceania
    • 35 French St
      Eagle Farm, Brisbane
      QLD 4009
      1300-442-458
  • Southeast Asia
    • Singapore
      18 Tampines Industrial Crescent #06-07
      Singapore 528 605
      +65-6709-8503
    • Malaysia
      No 4, Jalan Jururancang U1/21A
      Hicom Glenmarie Industrial Park
      40150 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
      (+603) 5565 0888 x2
  • All Other Geographies
    • +1-859-233-1271

Big Ass Facts

  • Haiku with SenseME is the world's smartest ceiling fan. It monitors temperature, humidity and occupancy and adjusts speeds automatically.
  • Popular Science named Haiku "the world's quietest fan." We hand-balance each one, so no Haiku will ever rattle or wobble. Guaranteed.
  • Big Ass Fans work great in the winter, too! They spin slowly to gently push hot air back down to floor level (where you are), saving you up to 10% on heating bills.
  • Our dedicated Customer Advocates talk to each and every customer, searching for even the smallest imperfection in their experience that we can improve.
  • Haiku has won more than 65 design and technology awards from organizations including Popular Science, ENERGY STAR, CES and Interior Design.
  • Big Ass Fans' team of more than 75 degreed engineers have received 43 patents with another 28 pending for their cutting-edge work on Haiku.
  • Each Haiku Light includes four environmental sensors that measure occupancy and ambient light, so your light responds to your surroundings.
  • The bamboo Haiku airfoil is handcrafted of Moso bamboo, a sustainable resource that fully regrows every five years.
  • Each polished aluminum Haiku fan is hand-polished for 90 minutes using a pair of white gloves to avoid smudges.
  • The Premier Model Haiku Light includes more than 140 LEDs and is expected to brighten your space for 45 years.
  • Haiku Fans hold the top 19 efficiency rankings as rated by ENERGY STAR®.
  • What does it take to keep you comfortable automatically? SenseME technology sends up to 60 million instructions every second to Haiku. Who knew comfort was so complex?
  • Big Ass Fans started in dairy barns—because a cool cow is a comfortable cow, and a comfortable cow produces more milk.
  • Big Ass Fans was originally the HVLS Fan Co., but customers kept asking about "those big-ass fans," and a name was born.
  • Our donkey mascot is named Fanny (naturally). The real Fanny is a Central Kentucky donkey, now immortalized in our logo.

What Makes Us Big Ass?

People
It Takes A Big Ass Village
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It Takes a Big Ass Village

It takes a certain type of person to work at a place called Big Ass Solutions®—which is why our employees are our best asset (so to speak). Our people are smart, curious, hardworking, dedicated and always open to learning new things. Whether they’re building fans, selling lights, designing the tech of the future or crunching mountains of numbers, we wouldn’t go far without each and every member of our growing, worldwide team.

We’re a lot more than just manufacturing, too. With more than 75 degreed engineers on staff, we’re constantly pushing the boundaries of what our products can do. Our sales team includes more than 50 LEED®-accredited professionals who help make projects as green as humanly possible. What we’re saying is we know what we’re doing.

Want in? Learn more about everything from International Sales to IT (and check out our current job openings) on our careers page.

Innovation
Doing Things the Big Ass Way
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Doing Things the Big Ass Way

Our…ahem…provocative name originated with our original product: massive overhead fans that brought comfort and energy savings to large industrial and agricultural buildings. Today, though, Big Ass Solutions® is much more than industrial—and much more than Big Ass Fans®. We make fans, lights, controls and innovative solutions for everywhere from the largest workplaces to your bedroom.

Big Ass® means using quality, form and function to solve problems in the built environment. How do we do that? We have more than 75 degreed engineers and the world’s only R&D facility (which is LEED® Gold, no less) dedicated to testing air movement on a grand scale. We speak to our customers directly to understand and solve their problems. But mostly it comes from an insatiable drive to improve, engineer, design, test, re-engineer, re-design and re-test until we get it just right—and then start all over again. We don’t do things half-ass; we always go Big Ass®. And that’s precisely why there’s No Equal®.

Direct Sales
No Middlemen, No Markups, No B.S.
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No Middlemen, No Markups, No B.S.

We love working directly with our customers. We’ve done it since the beginning. Those conversations let us learn about our customers’ problems (so we can figure out new, better ways to solve them), give us a direct channel to hear their feedback and help us build relationships that last for years.

Why buy directly from the manufacturer? Why would you ever do anything else? Since we’re the ones who design, test, build and ship our products, we know them inside and out. That means we can find the absolute best products for your home, help you install them the right way, and take care of you (and them) for years to come.

Manufacturer
If You Want It Built Right,
You Better Build It Yourself
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If You Want It Built Right,
You Better Build It Yourself

We make things here—and we make them the right way. That’s why most of our operations (engineering, design, manufacturing, sales, service) are located within a stone’s throw of each other in Lexington, Kentucky. Things just work better when the people making our products can tell the people designing them what could be better, different and streamlined to make our whole operation run more efficiently.

Customer Advocacy
You Can Call Us
But We'll Call You, Too
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You Can Call Us—But We’ll Call You, Too

Like most companies, we want to make sure our customers are happy. Unlike most companies, we reach out to every one of our customers to see how things are going.

Yep. Every single customer. We’ve got a whole team devoted to it.

Our Customer Advocates are a separate, independent wing of Big Ass Solutions®—they’re paid by the company, but they work for our customers. Not only do they reach out to everyone who buys a product, they also handle any issues that come up in the process and serve as the voice of the customer as we develop and improve our products. They love feedback — good or bad but mostly the bad, because that's the only way we improve. And they take pride showing our customers that we really do want to hear from them—so much that we’ll be the ones to reach out first.

It’s just one more way we keep the Big Ass® relationship going. Remember, we’re in this for the long haul.

Videos


Awards

At Haiku Home and Big Ass Solutions, we have an insatiable drive to improve, engineer, design, test, re-engineer, re-design and re-test until we get it just right. We don’t do things halfway — we go Big Ass®. And we’ve got the awards to prove it.