A Fan of This Fan

Recently I saw this fan spinning near the ceiling at a gift shop within the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.:


And then while I was standing near the door, I noticed a plaque headlined Big Ass Fan, followed by these words:

Friends of the National Zoo is committed not only to the comfort of the people within this building, but also to the concepts of sustainability and conservation of our resources.

The Big Ass Fan overhead is evidence of this. This extraordinary fan covers more area than 9 small ceiling fans while using 66% less energy, and can improve the efficiency of our heating and air conditioning units by as much as 30%.

The last sentence is a lot of information packed into a small bit of text. A lesson on fans wasn't what I had been expecting alongside the T-shirts and stuffed pandas, but I got one anyway.