The big game is this Sunday, and whether you are a Giants fan, Patriots fan, or have no allegiance to either team, I’m sure you will be watching. This year’s Super Bowl is at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, and the building is pretty impressive.

I wanted to find out some more information about the venue for the Feb. 5 game. If you go to www.lucasoilstadium.com, you can find quite a few facts. For example, the stadium has 16,000 tons of steel. Also, the stadium’s retractable roof is a super frame structural system. According to the website, Lucas Oil Stadium is the first stadium to use this system. The roof is a gabled roof with the peak running from north to south down the center of the field. It has two moving panels that are supported on five rails. It takes anywhere from nine to 11 minutes to open and close the roof.

The website also has information on the stadium’s energy-efficiency initiatives. One of the initiatives listed jumped out at me. The stadium uses fans by the Big Ass Fans Co. We’ve published a few articles about Big Ass Fans, including the use of the company’s fans at a school in Texas. That article is this month’s cover story, and you can read it here.

While I don’t know where the fans are located in the stadium, the website says that the fans are being used because they can move large amounts of air through a space without using a lot of energy. Overhead fans, such as those manufactured by Big Ass Fans, can also work in tandem with an HVAC system. They can efficiently move cool air throughout a space, helping to make sure that all occupants are comfortable. These fans can also be used all year. Not only do they help people stay cool during the summer months, they can keep people warm in the winter. Warm air will settle towards the ceiling. When the fans are on, this warmer air can be dispersed closer to occupant level.

If anyone knows where Lucas Oil Stadium is using the Big Ass Fans, let me know. As usual, it’s always great to see the HVAC and sheet metal industry involved in such a high-profile project. And you can’t get any more high profile than the Super Bowl.