Bannister effect  

For decades in the first half of the twentieth century, running a sub-4-minute mile was considered a barrier in athletics. Breaking the barrier, according to experts, required peak performance in ideal weather and track conditions. 

Roger Bannister, a full-time student with no formal training, devised a strategy to break through the elusive barrier. He was considered an outsider and un-conventional. On May 6th, 1954, in a small meet at Oxford, England, attended by few thousand, he breached the barrier by covering a mile at 3 minute 59 and four-tenths of a second. This moment demonstrated to other runners that it is not an insurmountable obstacle. In 1955 in one another meet, three runners ran a sub-four-minute mile. Hundreds of runners repeated the feat in the following years. 

Did the athletes suddenly become better? Did the running technique change?  

No. It removed a mental block from the top athletes. 

When a supposed unconquerable summit was reached, it showed others that it was possible. Sub 4-minute mile was considered impossible for over half a century creating a mental barrier. Bannister’s achievement removed the mental block among runners.  

Later this was known as ‘The Bannister Effect’. It is the phenomenon of one person showing others that it can be done and, thus, prompting others to believe and achieve. 

So how does the Bannister effect relate to Superfan?  

There were about 40 crore fans in India around 2010, contributed to about 16000 MW in electricity demand and about 200,000 lakh tons of carbon pollution every day. These drawbacks pushed for a need for efficient solutions in fans.  

In the case of small appliances, the barrier was sub 35W energy consumption, this was regarded as super energy efficiency. Indian fan industry is dominated by large legacy brands like Crompton, Bajaj, Usha, Orient, and so on. Despite their size, they struggled for years to come up with a practical solution to the efficiency issue. They speculated that it would never be built.

An outsider like Versa Drives Private Limited had to come to shatter that barrier and show a path to others. Versa Drives did that by making India’s first super energy efficient ceiling fan, Superfan in 2012.  In the next 3 years, 3 brands made their super energy-efficient ceiling fans and now in 2021, all the major brands have at least one model of Super energy-efficient fans.

Superfan did not stop their innovation. In 2021, Superfan broke the 25W barrier with its Super Q. And it went on to be awarded the ‘Appliance of the year’ by the Ministry of Power, India.  

Superfan created a revolution that has saved millions of units of electricity for our nation and avoided tens of millions of carbon pollution for our world. 

Contact us at 1800 425 78737 or email at helpdesk@superfan.in to learn more.