Choosing Between a Misting Fan and an Air Conditioner?

Choosing between a misting fan and an air conditioner used to be easy. Back then people wanted an air conditioner since it provided them with relief from heat stress. However, times have changed. A lot of people are having second thoughts if they should still use their air conditioner to cool off during the hot summer months.

Some people are dismissive of mist fans when they should not be. Mist fans can be used to help people cool in some of the hottest situations. In fact, mist fans are so useful that they also see use in applications beyond cooling.

Picking an air conditioner or a misting fan really depends on a person’s needs and how those needs can be addressed by either machine. Below is a list of some of the pros and cons of both machines and which kind of situation it is best suited for.

Air conditioners

Air conditioners are extremely different from electric fans and mist fans. Air conditioners are different because of how they cool a room.An electric fan cools people by blowing them a strong stream of air. The fresh air provides the cooling comfort people want. Air conditioners are different in that they do not produce a strong gust of wind. Air conditioners rely on slowly cooling the air in an enclosed space.


Air is drawn into the air conditioner and is made colder. Eventually, the ambient temperature of the room’s air is conditioned into something more comfortable.

The downside with air conditioners is that they are extremely expensive. This is because air conditioners are complex machines that require a lot of power to use. The amount of power that air conditioners use is also an issue given the costs involved in running one. Finally, air conditioners have a downside in that they are fixed, meaning that once installed it is difficult to move them around the house.

Misting fan

People know that air conditioners performed better than mist fans when it came to enclosed places. Mist fans cannot perform as well as air conditioners, but can still provide a cooling comfort that people want.

The nice thing about a mist fan is that it can provide a cool relief from the heat in a similar fashion to an air conditioner. Mist fans are actually capable of cooling the air that they use through a process known as evaporative cooling. Evaporative cooling is the process of using a liquid to absorb heat until it evaporates in order to cool something off.

Mist fans generate a stream of air mixed with super tiny droplets of water. The tiny droplets are so miniscule that they evaporate almost instantaneously. When they evaporate, the water takes some of the heat with them.

The downside to mist fans will never give the same kind of comfort as an air conditioner in an enclosed space. They also require water in order to work properly whereas air conditioners only need electricity.

FanHowever, mist fans also have their advantages over air conditioners. For one thing, mist fans are a lot cheaper to get and operate than an air conditioner. It is a lot more economical to purchase several mist fans for several rooms than to have a centralized air conditioning system. Second, a mist fan is not a fixed appliance. A person can own one mist fan and move it around the house depending on a person’s needs. Third, a mist fan is eco friendly. Plenty of people are starting to become conscious of how their actions affect the environment. A misting fan does not produce harmful gasses that can harm the environment.