Okay, so along the lines of industry standouts, a company that I would personally promote is Big-Ass-Fans 

As I mentioned in the blog on Trane Centravacs, I'm not getting paid to promote them, and I really have nothing to gain personally, and will probably get the hate mail along as BigAssFans does (which they handle with hilarity) However, I have a few reasons to like them, some technical, some simple.

1) What's in a Name?

As Shakespeare said - "A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet"... The analogy applied to big-ass-fans, sort of.... stinks? In this case, everything is in the name, and the selection of the name was pure genius, indicating that the company was founded by a sharp mind. Humor in the HVAC industry is extremely tough, and it took some serious gonads to file the company under that name. It caused quite a stir at first, which ultimately paid back. Thus, it was pure genius at it's inception. See the video they made at the bottom.

2) Efficiency and appearance

"the fan does spin with little bitty waste, and a round thing in your face..." Big Ass Fans operate at top efficiency in the industry, and they also have some of the sharpest looking fans. I'm not an interior designer, but "I'm hooked and I can't stop staring"... check this out for yourself

3) Acoustics-

Perhaps the quietest industrial fans available. At under 55 dB (at peak speed), you can hardly hear them at a distance of 20 ft.

4) Heating Application and efficiency

To prevent stratification, Big Ass fans, do not "reverse" like a conventional ceiling fan - which is a solid strategy, and I personally think it's a good method. However, big ass fans go beyond this, and instead of reversing the direction of the air, they slow the fan down, which is technically more efficient and gets the job done. (FYI -Sorry to state the obvious, but some folks don't know this: The reason you don't want a fan blowing too hard or directly at you during heating mode, is because it makes you feel colder)

5) Low Maintenance

They use a hermetically sealed drive in some of their fans. They call it "Nitro-seal drive system". This minimizes maintenance and also helps keep the fans operating at maximum efficiency and prevents them from producing unnecessary heat (via friction from dust and other particulates)

6) Precision

Machine cut precision and a special hub system prevents wobbly big-ass-fans. (I apologize to the folks who googled that term and clicked it because they saw that we are a modeling website). 

7) Easy installation

They provide pre-mounted VFD's (variable frequency drives). Not to get too technical, but VFD fans are almost always helpful in energy models, but VFD's often require additional electric work. Since industrial big ass fans have the VFD already installed, the fan installs without the additional work

8) Super-Tested

They have an unbelievable state of the art testing facility. If you ever see them at a trade show, they usually have a really neat booth too.

9) Sense of humor - this goes back to #1.

They get a lot of hate mail because of their name. See the video they made in response to Criticism of their use of "profanity"! While, I find it funny, from a strategic point, it is brilliant. Take some bad press and make it into good press (And for all you Bigassfans - consider the history of Kim Kardashian!)