Workshop & Shed Fans
Shed fans earn their keep on a January afternoon, when a Colorbond shed is an oven with a concrete floor. The fix is not six pedestal fans fighting for a powerpoint, it is one properly sized Down Under Fans ceiling fan moving the whole shed’s air at once.
Two kinds of shed, two kinds of fan
Farm and machinery sheds
Big open spans, roofs from 4m up, and nobody standing still. This is HVLS territory: a 3.7m or 4.3m fan mounts to the portal frame, covers 380 to 450m², and keeps air moving over machinery, workbenches and anyone underneath from a single point. Both run on single phase if that is what the site has.
Workshops and garages
Lower roofs, tighter spaces, people working in one spot for hours. From a 2.5m ceiling the 2.4m and 3m commercial fans fit where an HVLS fan physically cannot, cover 140 to 210m², and at 38dB you can run one all day directly over a workbench and forget it is there.
Bigger shed than that? Step up through the full HVLS range to 7.3m and 1,500m².
Why the shed cooks, and what a fan actually does
Steel sheeting turns solar load straight into radiant heat, and the hot air stacks under the ridge with nowhere to go. A ceiling fan does not lower the air temperature, it moves air across skin, which reads 3 to 6 degrees cooler at working height, and it flushes the hot layer off the roof instead of letting it bake down on you. With the roller door open it keeps working, which is the part refrigerated cooling can never do.
Run it in reverse on winter mornings and the same fan pushes the warm layer back down, which is why a shed fan is not a summer-only purchase. It also keeps condensation from settling on cold steel, which anyone who stores a ute or a tractor under an uninsulated roof will appreciate.
Mounting is to the portal frame or a roof member that can take the load, centred over where you actually work rather than the middle of the floor plan. The kit includes hardware for steel and concrete, and the controller mounts at standing height by the door or the bench, wherever you will actually use it.
Wired once, certified, warranted
These are hardwired fans on structural mounts, installed by a licensed electrical contractor: our own team in New South Wales. Outside NSW, send the quote form and we will point you the right way. Licensed installation is what keeps the 5-year warranty valid, and it means the controller ends up mounted where you actually use it rather than wherever the plug was. How installation works
Every fan ships from stock in our New South Wales warehouse.
Shed ventilation and shed circulation are not the same thing
These two words get used interchangeably, but they solve different problems, and it is worth being clear about which one you have before spending money.
Ventilation exchanges inside air for outside air. It is what clears accumulated hot air, welding smoke, fumes and moisture out of a shed. That job belongs to roof vents, whirlybirds, wall louvres and extraction fans. We do not sell any of those, and if your shed holds fumes, welding or engine exhaust, a ceiling fan is not a substitute for proper ventilation. Get the extraction right first.
Circulation is different. It moves the air already inside the shed across the people standing in it, which is what makes the space workable on a hot afternoon. That is the fan’s job, and it is the only thing we are claiming here.
A hot shed usually needs both. Extraction clears the air, the fan keeps the people under it comfortable. If ventilation is the right answer for your building, fit ventilation, even though it is not something we supply.
What the fan does do is cover serious floor area from one mounting point. The commercial range covers 140 m² at 2.4m or 210 m² at 3m, both drawing 300W. In the HVLS range, the 3.7m fan covers 380 m² at 370W and the 4.3m covers 450 m² at 750W. Running costs stay in the hundreds of watts, and the whole thing sits above head height out of the racking.
Industrial shed fans and garage ceiling fans
Two very different buildings, two ranges.
The big industrial shed, steel portal frame, high roof, racking or plant on the floor, takes the HVLS sizes. The 3.7m fan covers 380 m² at mounting heights of 3 to 5m. The 5m covers 500 m² at 3.6 to 6m. For the largest sheds, the 6.7m covers 1,300 m² at heights of 5 to 14m, and the 7.3m covers 1,500 m². Airflow runs from 5,000 m³/min on the 3.7m up to 13,000 m³/min on the 7.3m, and every one of them runs at 38dB.
A domestic garage or small workshop is a different problem. The ceiling is lower, so the commercial range is the fit: it mounts from 2.5m, with the 2.4m fan covering 140 m² and the 3m covering 210 m², both at 300W and 38dB.
One thing that surprises people at the domestic end: even a single garage fan is a hardwired unit on a structural mount, installed by a licensed electrical contractor. This is not a plug-in pedestal fan. It hangs from your steel or concrete and carries an independent safety cable, which is why we treat a two-car garage with the same rigour as a distribution centre.
Shed fans in context
Shed sizing usually comes down to roof height, and every size with its coverage figure is on the industrial ceiling fan range. Larger steel buildings with racking are covered on warehouse ceiling fans, and farm buildings on agricultural fans. The practical version is in how to cool a shed or warehouse.
Shed questions we get asked
My shed roof is barely 3m. What fits?
Will one fan do a 20m x 15m farm shed?
I only have single phase at the shed. Does that rule anything out?
Get a shed quote
Tell us what you do in the shed and roughly how big it is. We come back with the fan, the count and an installed price.
Prefer to talk? Call 02 5700 3337.
Farm buildings beyond the shed? See agricultural fans for dairies, stables and arenas.