I was curious if this really did make a difference over a fan. I used a meat thermometer to get a reading of the *room temp, *the fan blowing & *the evapolar blowing. I was fairly surprised to see a 10 degree drop with the evapolar since using my little fan on low felt like it was doing a better job of cooling. I think because it has to go thru an air filter it has less oomph and feels less powerful. The temp reading does show that it is doing its job and I think it's fine up close & personal. For the price, a fan is probably still a better choice for cheap cooling, but the evapolar does add some nice humidity to the room.