By Richard Chang
Public Relations and Communications SpecialistIt all started with a noisy ventilation fan inside the bathroom of Delta Electronics founder Bruce Cheng.
Mr. Cheng pondered whether the ubiquitous bathroom exhaust fan could be reinvented to make less noise and use less energy. He set off his engineers to investigate and soon, a prototype of the first Delta Breez ventilation fan was finished, powered by a brushless DC motor that ran super quietly and consumed significantly less electricity than traditional AC motor fans that once dominated the industry.
A decade after Delta Breez was first launched, the brand of ventilation fans has grown to 60 models and more than two million units sold. Delta Breez has consistently garnered industry praise and recently celebrated its fourth win of the prestigious “ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year” award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Today, Delta Breez ranks as the number three manufacturer of residential bathroom ventilation fans in the United States with 11 percent of the market, according to
Home Builder Executive magazine.
The budding success story of Delta Breez began 10 years ago when a small sales staff fanned out across the country in search of new orders, but were initially challenged with the question: “Delta, who?”
Contractors and home builders also struggled to understand the advantages of DC motor technology. Delta was a pioneer in a field that had been dominated by cheap, energy-hogging fans that used AC motors.
DC motor technology can be summed up as: quiet, energy-efficient and long-lasting. Delta fans are rated to run continuously for a minimum of 70,000 hours, which is the equivalent of never turning it off for eight years. On average, they last 2.5 times longer than the AC motor competition.
“People didn’t understand how this new DC motor technology worked. It was an education process,” said Senior Product Manager Kai Wang
Wang launched Delta Breez from the ground up, finding customers on the floors of trade shows and traveling to distributors to sell the idea of an ultra-efficient DC-motor bathroom fan, using the tagline: “Perfectly Quiet. Perfectly Green.” Wang devised a pop-up display with a digital power meter that highlighted the energy usage of a Delta Breez fan stacked up against other manufacturers.
“The power meter proved a point – that we were indeed
perfectly green. The industry was shocked at what they saw and how much energy could be saved with Delta Breez fans,” said Wang, who is colloquially known as “the father of Delta Breez.”
After establishing a nationwide network of distributors, team Delta Breez set its eyes on breaking onto the store shelves of the country’s leading home improvement stores. Recognizing Delta’s strides in energy efficiency, retailers started stocking Delta Breez fans as consumers and contractors gravitated toward energy-efficient products – spurred on by changes to local building codes.
In 2016, Delta won “ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year” for the first time from the federal government, a particularly noteworthy achievement. Delta again received the honor in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
In 2018, Delta Breez surpassed the milestone of two million units sold since its inception.
“Celebrating the 10-year anniversary of Delta Breez is truly momentous,” Wang said. “Delta Breez has realized our corporate mission of providing innovative, clean and energy-efficient solutions for a better tomorrow.”