Mr. Holmström, what are the challenges of your job?
I install fans of different sizes, depending on how much air they’re to move. Replacing old fans with new ones has to be quick. It’s therefore important for both me and my staff that the hand-
ling of fans is as simple as possible. The biggest ones weigh around 70 kilos, and roof openings are often too small. Conventional solutions involve using a crane.
That sounds like hard work …
Yes, but we’ve now started using roof fans from ebm-papst in Sweden. They’re really easy to handle. If they don’t fit through the roof opening in one piece, you can simply take them apart and just put them back together again afterwards. This way we don’t need a crane. And they very rarely get anything wrong with them. Other manufacturers can’t offer such quality. And the price is of course also fine — the whole package is just great.
“For me and my staff it’s important that the handling of fans is simple.”
Jan Holmström, ventilation engineer at HSB
What’s the procedure or installation and connection of the fans?
For installation itself we often only need a screwdriver. We’re replacing the fan with the same size, and ebm-papst fans are a real plug & play solution. There isn’t actually much to connect up. We can replace that sort of thing in max. four hours — often far quicker.
I also regularly use the preconfiguration service for the fans. This means I give ebm-papst the necessary values — for example, the number of liters required per second. They then tell me the right size.
How many roof fans have you installed to date?

Jan is most happy about how easy handling the ebm-papst roof top fans is. (Photo | Josefin Holmberg)
By now we must have installed some 40 or 50. We generally fit ten or so a year. As we work on private homes, it’s not particularly regular. We sometimes install fans in ten houses, and then sometimes only two — you just can’t say. It’s around ten a year.
Do you often have to persuade the owner of the building?
No, sometimes it’s the owners who come to us and say they need new fans. In some cases I also see fans are old when servicing them on site and then speak to the owner myself, telling them they could save such and such an amount of energy if they had a new one installed. An engineer from ebm-papst will often come and measure up the old fans. The engineer then writes a report detailing how great the potential savings are. The report also shows when the investment will have paid for itself.
BU: Motor: direct drive GreenTech EC integral motor
Power: 27 W — 2.75 kW
Size housing: 432 mm
Size lower frame: 592 — 992 mm
Air flow: up to 1,800 m³/h
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