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In terms of size, weight and cooling ability (they rate it at 12,000 BTU) electriQ’s 40-litre unit begins to approach portable air conditioners. It’s the one you’d want in a workshop or office at the height of the summer. If you want to turn your home into a wind tunnel, this is the fan for you. This tower fan had the highest air speed of all the models we tested, blasting out air at a rate of over 800 feet per minute. Unsurprisingly at that level, things got noisy, but fear not, its lowest setting would be quiet enough for bed-time. At full power, the fan delivered air speed at 4.8m/s, which only dropped at 2.8m/s at one metre and an effective 1.6m/s at two metres. That’s enough air speed to keep you cool at a distance, making the VonHaus 35″ Tower Fan a suitable fan to cool an entire room. Our one minor complaint about fan speed is that the lowest setting is still a relatively powerful 4m/s at 1m – we’d have liked a slightly lower minimum speed. As anyone who’s tried to buy a new fan in the middle of summer can attest, there’s a ridiculous amount of choice out there and mostly from brands you’ve never heard of. Just take one look at the available wares of some of the biggest online retailers and you’ll know exactly what we’re talking about.
Princess 357250 Smart Air Cooler | Princess
Measured on its highest setting, we detected air flor at 1.7m/s at 1m away. At this kind of power, this fan can cool more than one person. Impressively, the fan is also quiet: just 48.5dB from 1m away, and 40.8dB on its minimum speed: that’s barely a whisper. Our only complaint is that the fan makes a slightly waspy noise in operation. Even the least energy-efficient – the Princess Smart Air Cooler – wasn't much more expensive, averaging about 2p an hour. Our runner-up fan is a strong all-rounder. With 12 air speeds, it can provide everything from a gentle breeze to a strong flow. It has a broad range of movement too, oscillating at up to 130 degrees to cover multiple people at once, or adjustable downwards if it’s only catering to you. As a result, our testers found it successfully increased their comfort levels. The Princess – a Dutch brand – was the first air cooler I tried, in the middle of 2022’s heatwave when all the big-beast proper air conditioners were sold out. It was a bit of a revelation, reducing the temperature in my bedroom from an entirely unreasonable 23 degrees (at midnight!) to a more bearable 19.This model uses a water tank, which lasts for between four and nine hours, depending on the temperature and humidity level. In either case, it’s enough water to get you through most of a hot night. We found the heat mode to be reliable, too. This fan can help push a cold room into a comfortable space, and the thermostat helps cut down on electricity bills, as the heater will turn off automatically when the right temperature has been reached.
Princess Smart Air Cooler 3.5L | Toolstation
Finally, air coolers can help to humidify the air in dry climates. This makes them a great choice for those who want to stay cool while also reducing their impact on the environment. Ultimately, the choice between an air cooler and an air conditioner will depend on your room size, budget, and setup needs. * Air cooler running costs The Dr. Prepare 13-inch Dual Oscillating Tower Fan is a relatively small tower fan that’s as at home on a desk as it is on the floor. Rather than having one set of fan blades, this model has two that work together. The result is more powerful airflow than you might expect from such a model.
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As of July 1 2023, the government’s Energy Price Guarantee caps the per unit costs at 30p per kiloWatt-hour for electricity, so that a 100W appliance costs roughly 3p per hour to run. We’ve used this as our guide to air cooler running costs, although they may be lower depending on your tariff. This cheap cube desktop cooler doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles, but it’s a good way to chill your fevered brow while you’re plugging away at your desk. Its two removable 300ml tanks mean it doesn’t constantly need refilling, and you can freeze them if you want some extra cooling. The three-speed fan gives you options from subtle breeze to full-on gusting, and on the lowest setting it’s quiet enough that it won’t disturb you while you work.
Air Conditioners UK (2022) - Mirror Online 14 Best Portable Air Conditioners UK (2022) - Mirror Online
Unfortunately, it doesn’t move as much air as its 120W motor would suggest and is a little bit more unwieldy than the other tower models. But it’s solidly constructed, has a big water tank and should last a long time. Fans make you feel cooler by helping sweat evaporate from your body. How effective a fan is, depends largely on how humid it is. When there’s high humidity, it’s hard for sweat to evaporate, so a fan doesn’t do much to help cool you. This is why on humid days we tend to think of them as being hot and sweaty. Conversely, when humidity is lower, it’s much easier for evaporation to happen, which is when fans feel the most effective. Tower fans are a great space saver but they often sacrifice power to get a slimmer body. Not so with the VonHaus 35″ Tower Fan, which manages to deliver some of the best fan performance that we’ve seen, both up close and across a room. We’ve seen small, portable models before, and they’ve usually been a bit rubbish. Not so with the MeacoFan 260C Cordless Air Circulator, which has a lot of power, reaching a maximum air speed of 2.3m/s from 15cm away. That’s enough air to give you a cooling dose of air. There are four fan speeds in total, with the lowest running at 49.7dB, or quiet enough to sleep through.Firstly, we consider its power, looking at the strength of each setting and the difference between them. To do this, we use an anemometer to understand how much air it blows, measured in feet per minute. The greater the range of speeds and the wider the difference between them, the more you can adjust the fan to suit you. All fans can adjust the amount of air that comes out of them by adjusting how fast their blades spin: the slower they go, the lower the air flow. Having control over the air flow is very important for different situations, and where you sit. So, as our tests show, the slower the fan speed, the less the impact is at distance, so if you sit further from the fan or want to cool more people, you need a higher fan speed. Conversely, if you’re sitting at a desk and just want to cool yourself, then you can get by with a lower fan speed, which will also mean that you don’t blow papers around on your desk. Additionally, it should be easy to use and maintain, with features like air cleaning filters, automatic shutoff and timers. You’ll also want to make sure it’s energy-efficient. The more powerful units use more energy, although all air coolers are much cheaper to run than air conditioners.” If you’re looking for a powerful fan that will blow colder-than-room-temperature air and doesn’t cost a fortune to run, this is a great choice.
Best Fan 2023: Dispel the summer heat with our top picks
Plus, the Princess Smart Air Cooler costs a lot less to run than an air conditioner. We measured power and this air conditioner will cost around 2p per hour to run at current costs. A fan with a remote control can be a good option if you want to adjust settings on the fly. This is particularly true in the bedroom, where you may not want to get out of bed to turn off your fan. On that note, look for a fan with a sleep timer so that it will shut off after a set time. The clear instructions, complete with text and images, make this fan a breeze to set up and use. It’s well made with thoughtful design details, including the option to tilt the body of the fan, offering extra control over the direction of air. Its highest setting was notably strong and quiet too. A fan isn’t just about direct cooling, it’s about shifting stuffy, stale air around and refreshing a room. There’s no fan that can do that better than the MeacoFan 1056 Pedestal Air Circulator. A pedestal version of the desktop model, which is still available, this large fan has horizontal and vertical oscillation, so that it pushes air all around, giving full-room recirculation.Pedestal fans look like tall desktop fans, and are designed to stand on the floor. Typically, they have larger blades, so take up more room, but this makes them more powerful. With most models offering height adjustment, in addition to pivot and oscillation, pedestal fans are easier to configure for the perfect cooling breeze. As this is a portable model, you lose out on some features that bigger models have: you don’t get a remote, there are only four fan speeds and there’s no oscillation. If you need any of these options, look elsewhere, but if you want a flexible fan you can take everywhere this is the best model that we’ve reviewed. Next, this model is also a humidifier, adding moisture to the air when needed. Again, it’s a fully automated system that will only add moisture when it’s needed. This helps improve the home environment and can help with dry skin and make it easier to breathe. This will keep your home environment just right all year round as it also doubles as a heater (read what we thought of its warming capabilities here.) As a fan, testers rated its adjustable oscillation, which goes up to a whopping 350 degrees, meaning it can reach multiple people dotted around the same room. Desktop fans are the traditional models. These let you tilt the fan to direct airflow; you turn on the oscillation mode to let the fan sweep from side to side.
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