Powerful but not too loud. It’s Spring for me right now so it hasn’t been on for a long period of time it. My husband does run hot so we tried for a few hours (more than I wanted). This unit is 10,000 BTU the others we own are 8,000 so this one does keep more space cool. I cannot comment on whether it works faster yet as the home was not warm/hot to begin with. I will report back. Will definitely be on all summer.