Evapolar evaCHILL Portable Air Conditioner - Compact Personal Cooling Fan & Evaporative Cooler for Desk, Office, Car, Camping - White | Perfect for Home, Travel & Outdoor Adventures

I recently ended up with a $900 electric bill thanks to a week of 110 degree days in sunny California, so I decided to look into some alternatives to running central air all day. This little guy seemed to be the most well-reviewed out of all the options for portable air conditioners even though it still had an overall 3.6 rating, but I decided to give it a try.Having tested it out, I gotta say it actually works better than expected and I think some of the negative reviews have had issues for easily avoidable reasons.1) This is not made to cool an entire room. That's not the point of it. This is for someone who wants to cool down their bed while they're sleeping or set it on their desk to cool down while they're working or maybe place in a corner of the kitchen while cooking. Basically, it's for when you're spending a lot of time in roughly the same spot and don't necessarily need to cool down your entire house.2) it doesn't work wonders for the first 20 minutes or so. The water needs to soak through the filter cartridge because the water evaporating in a (ideally) dry climate is the science behind cooling the air. Until that happens it's basically just a little box fan. I get the impression some reviewers tested it out for 5 minutes, concluded it doesn't work, and wrote their review. Give it at least 20 minutes and you should definitely notice that it's pushing out air a good 8-10ish degrees cooler than the room temp is.3) because this relies on water evaporating, it works better in drier climates. If you're in California, Arizona, New Mexico, etc this will work great. If you're in a humid place like Florida, you should frankly leave.4) Based on what some have mentioned in terms of its air pushing capabilities, it seems like they maybe don't realize there are multiple settings. At its lowest setting I would say they're right: you basically need to have it within 12 inches of you to even notice it's on. However it has 4 settings that you cycle through by pushing the button on top (and there are no other buttons, it's pretty fool-proof). I think the 2nd setting is probably what most people would use while sitting it on their desk or beside their bed (higher settings might actually make you cold at that proximity). At its highest setting it's a bit noisy (like a PC fan at full speed), but I think it would actually be sufficient to cool a *small* bedroom at that level. If you have something like a 10×10 space or smaller and you don't have high ceilings, this might actually work for cooling the entire room at its highest setting. In a larger space, however, just remember this is made to cool you down while having it a few feet from you, not on the opposite end of where ever you are. I just did a little test and you can feel a cool breeze from 8 feet away at its highest setting. Beyond that you probably won't notice much effect.Also, I didn't notice this when I bought it, but it plugs in using a USB cord so you can power it with your computer or plug it into a power bank and take it on the go. It also only uses 7.5 watts which is literally 3,492.5 watts fewer than the average Central air system. That's not a joke or a typo. On a related note, I've seen some claim the price ($79 as of writing) is a bit steep, but consider that for anyone who works from home or stays in the same area for large parts of the day, this will allow you to kick the thermostat up a few degrees without sweating through your shirt, and then you'll save pretty substantially on each electric bill. It can pay for itself in one billing cycle if you let it, and after that it's actually costing you money not to have one.Overall, I'm perfectly satisfied with this purchase and it actually performs better than reviews had led me to believe. Just remember it's made to cool a roughly 10×10 area or smaller, not your entire estate. If you're ok with that, you'll love it.